Dennis Sichner traveled 400 miles to hang out at a Washington, D.C. bar on a Sunday night. There were $3 beers, 40 to 60 men and women, and a local bluesman playing three sets that evening. None of that mattered to Sichner.
After waiting nearly four hours -- and with just 10 minutes until closing time -- the saxophonist from Cleveland got what he came for when three Stevie Wonder songs played over the house sound system.
Sichner was a spy for a coalition of music publishers looking to make a copyright infringement case against Madam's Organ, a popular bar in Northwest Washington. And Wonder's songs apparently did the trick.Earlier this month, a federal judge in the District ordered Madam's Organ to pay $15,000 in damages to two publishing companies for the violations, as well as $2,500 in court costs.
Madam's Organ may also have to pay $63,000 in attorneys' fees, which it says might force it to close.
Not surprisingly, folks at Madam's Organ aren't happy. "This was a shakedown," says Madam's Organ manager, William Duggan, adding that the bar may be forced to close if ordered to pay $60,000 in legal fees. "Their intention is to make a hardball example out of us and scare the shit out of everyone else."
The case also exposes the vulnerability of establishments that play music to a paying -- or dancing -- audience. Duggan of Madam's Organ argued in court papers that there were no copyright violations because the bar subscribes to Music Choice, a cable music service provider. Kollar-Kotelly, however, ruled that the copyright protections offered through Music Choice did not extend to places that charge an admission fee or allowed dancing. The judge found that Madam's Organ had done both.
Did you know that any establishment that has paying customers is violating the law if it plays copyrighted music without a license? And that includes playing a radio recieving a commercial station. In fact, that is the raison d'etre for the famous Muzak Corporation.