Cell Phone Ring-tones Spark Copyright Questions

[Dukesy 0]

When a music ring tone goes off in a restaurant or during a company meeting, it's often heard by more than just the intended recipient.

 

But can that seconds-long clip of a song be considered a public performance of a musical work?

 

That's the question raised by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, a music industry licensing group that is asking a federal judge in New York to require the two largest U.S. wireless carriers, AT&T and Verizon, to pay for public performance licenses for cell phone ring tones.

 

The case is the latest skirmish in the battle between the music industry and technology companies over copyright law, and one legal expert says it threatens to drag consumers into the middle of it.

 

The financial stakes are large. One study pegs worldwide ring tone revenue at $5 billion in 2009. Meanwhile, Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) said ring tones would generate about $510 million in U.S. retail sales in 2008, the last year the publishers' rights group made such forecasts.

 

If ASCAP proves its case, the Electronic Frontier Foundation of San Francisco says it could cost consumers and technically turn millions of ring tone users into copyright violators.

 

"Clearly they are pointing a finger at every consumer that is holding a cell phone that goes off in the park or at the beach," said Fred von Lohmann, the digital rights group's senior intellectual property attorney. "We may be annoying people, but we're not infringing copyright law."

 

But officials for ASCAP said the New York organization is only trying to collect its fair share of revenue from the businesses that are profiting from ring tones. They strongly denied that the group was going after consumers and said critics like von Lohmann were using "scare tactics."

 

"We're going to fight hard for the very principle that the livelihoods of our members is at stake," said ASCAP attorney Richard Reimer. "It's not a consumer issue. It's more of a business-to-business issue."

 

The case is before U.S. District Judge William Conner in White Plains, N.Y., whose court has the jurisdiction to set rates for fees ASCAP collects on behalf of more than 350,000 composers, songwriters, lyricists and music publishers in the United States.

 

ASCAP and other performing rights organizations like BMI collect licensing and royalty fees when its members' songs are heard in public, such as on the radio or TV, or at a concert, club or shopping mall. Performance fees are different from fees collected by other music industry organizations from the sale of recorded music.

 

The current dispute stems from a 2007 rate court decision that determined the act of downloading music files from Internet sites could not be considered a public performance. ASCAP claims that some wireless providers, which were previously paying for ring tone licenses for public performances, used that decision to justify canceling those payments.

 

Now, ASCAP contends that once downloaded into a phone, a ring tone file can be played in public, so there is "no question" it meets the definition of a public performance under terms of the federal Copyright Act of 1976.

 

ASCAP says the tones are "public, regardless of whether some customers' phones may be sometimes switched to vibrate, turned off or located in the home. For a ring tone performance ... to be a public performance, it need not be received by the public every time." It also claims the promotional ring tone previews that carriers offer online are a public performance.

 

"We really see this as all about a transmission from the source to the ultimate listener of the music," Reimer said. "It doesn't matter whether it's radio, whether it's cable television or it's a ring tone - it's a transmission of that music."

 

Even though ring tones typically play only a few seconds of the song, they are usually "the essence, the main melody" of the artist or songwriter's creative work, said ASCAP spokesman Phil Crosland.

 

Representatives from both AT&T and Verizon declined to comment because the case is pending.

 

But von Lohmann, who filed a friend of the court brief Wednesday on behalf of the wireless carriers, said ASCAP's legal arguments were "insane" and "outlandish" because they are based on making wireless carriers secondarily liable for the copyright violations of cell phone owners for playing a ring tone in public. "You could even argue your mother is causing a public performance," he said.

 

If ASCAP is successful, the case could open a can of worms for other technology companies that provide equipment or services that allow music to be heard in public.

 

"ASCAP could go to car makers and say, 'You know, there are certain times people roll down their car windows while playing music that would result in a public performance,' " von Lohmann said.

 

AT&T subscriber Michelle Vanhille of Hayward questioned ASCAP's argument.

 

"On one hand, they are performers, they should get paid for the work they do," said Vanhille, who has downloaded about a dozen ring tones in recent years. "But if you're just playing a portion of it, I don't see how that's an outside performance. It doesn't seem rational."

 

ASCAP isn't saying how much it is seeking from the carriers, but plans to ask for payments retroactive to when the first musical ring tones were sold.

 

 

Hot ring tones

 

1. Changes (Tupac)

 

2. NYSE Bell (unknown)

 

3. Pink Panther (Henry Mancini)

 

4. Super Mario Brothers Theme (Koji Kondo)

 

5. Mission: Impossible (Lalo Schifrin)

 

6. Dead and Gone (T.I., Featuring Justin Timberlake)

 

7. Adios Amor Te Vas (Grupo Montez de Durango)

 

8. Sweet Home Alabama (Lynyrd Skynyrd)

 

9. Y Llegaste Tu (Banda el Recodo)

 

10. Eye of the Tiger (Survivor)

 

Source: Billboard magazine

[deejaymitch 0]

Here comes the Pro Ringtone License.

[D.X 0]

What a bunch of parasites these people are. Is there no level they wont stoop to in order to extract cash from people.

 

They're just bitter about file sharing and are hitting back in any way they can dream of.

[Dream Catchers 0]

Is there not something about music clips of less than 30 seconds not needing to be licensed?

 

Jim

[deejaymitch 0]

I think it's something ridiculous like 14 seconds Jim. Can't remember where I heard that though.

[Dukesy 0]

I think it's something ridiculous like 14 seconds Jim. Can't remember where I heard that though.

Perhaps the info you heard was merely.........a sample?!

 

:lol2:

 

I'll leave my coat. It's hot. :sweatdrop: