Friday, March 25, 2011

ASCAP vs Roller Derby part 2

My longtime secret girlfriend Anonymous left me a comment today on last years post regarding ASCAP representatives demanding money for playing music at bouts:

We told our ASCAP guy that we were covered by the rink licenses and he said we are not. The rink owner told us he would kick us out if he found out we had paid ASCAP. The rink owner has a different ASCAP representative. Any advice?

This isn't all that surprising.  To reprise the earlier post on this subject, ASCAP is a legitimate organization with legitimate benefit to songwriters and publishers but in the past few years, some of their representatives have become highly overzealous and occasionally make payment requests that are legally questionable.  To sum it up, "different ASCAP representative" clearly means that a second guy is trying to make a commission on the same venue.  If the facility has paid a site license, public use of music in that facility is paid for no matter who is playing the music or who is listening to it.  Next time he whines for money, give him an address where lawsuits can be delivered and tell him that he needs to sh** or get off the pot.  I suspect he will keep nagging and threatening but the subsequent lack of a legal summons means he knows he's trying to double-dip and has no legal basis for his whining.  For fun, take a picture of the ASCAP sticker on the front of the skating rink with the current year on it, send it to him and ask him why it doesn't have "except for roller derby!" anywhere on it. 


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