pulic performance licence

[stephen k]

I own a small car valet buisness with a small workshop , i am being told i have to pay £180 to buy a licence to listen to the radio , they sent me a demand that i binned thinking it was a scam they are now asking for a further £60 for none payment . will have to pay this or is there anyway around it .

[ploddertom]

Re: pulic performance licence

Is this PPL or PRS? If you are playing music and it can be heard by Joe Public or other employees then they can ask you to pay. If it is for your sole use or you use head/ear phones then they can be told to go and play with themselves. One of the usual tricks they employ is to ring you and remain silent when you answer to see if they can hear any music. My view would be to tell them it is only for your personal use and tell them to prove otherwise. Very much along the speculative invoice route.

[miliitant]

Re: pulic performance licence

we had this not so long ago, do you have a radio at work in an area the public can listen to. I am not talking of an office but an area open to the public WITH A RADIO PLAYING

[stephen k]

Re: pulic performance licence

its ppl , my workshop is only big enough for 1 car and the public are never in there , i would mostly vac cars outside and wash them i would listen to the customers radio in the car outside when i am working on them , they said i still need a licence

[teaboy2]

Re: pulic performance licence

Lol so they are claiming you need a license for playing a radio that is on a customers property (customers car), thats like saying you need a license in your shop because the jukebox from the pub next door can be heard by customers in your shop.

As its not your radio thats playing but a member of the joe publics radio, be it the property of one of your customers or not, then you are not required to need a license. Saying otherwise is like saying the customer is required a license to play their car radio on a companies property!

[stephen k]

Re: pulic performance licence

thats what i thought i dont play a radio in the workshop it would only be customers cars that would have there radios on and as i say the cars are outside . thanks for the responses people . so i will just ignore the calls and letters in future .

[teaboy2]

Re: pulic performance licence

I wouldn't ignore the letters as they may enter a claim in court. Best thing to do is write back to them by recorded delivery, making good use of the points i made in my above post and ask them to provide legislation that requires you to have a license for what is a customers car radio (inside a customers car) that is playing and not a radio you own!

Is the outside area of your workshop, public highway or part of your company property, because if is part of the public highway then thats something extra to point out to them in your letter back to them!

[bluebottle]

Re: pulic performance licence

The key point is that do the public have access, on payment or otherwise, to the premises? If the answer to this is "Yes", then there is a question as to whether a PRS/PPL can ask if you will buy a licence. If the answer is "No", PRS/PPL can be politely told to go swivel. As Teaboy has said, it is, basically, speculative invoicing. I had a confrontation with PRS some years ago over non-copyright music on videos I had produced for advertising purposes. They sent speculative invoice demanding silly amounts. I challenged them and the sum demanded reduced by by 33%. Then I challenged them to quote the relevant law, which they misquoted and I countered, after which they withdrew their demands.

The relevant legislation, in the UK, relating to the performance of music is the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988. PRS/PPL tend to misquote or, more accurately, misinterpret this legislation. Keep pushing them into a corner and they'll give up.

[teaboy2]

Re: pulic performance licence

I had a run it with one of them not so long ago. They assumed that even though i work from home and 1 of my trade partners (former employees are now all homebased working trade partners) worked from my home too, that i needed a license.

Lets just say i didn't bloody hold back on my language and i sent them an invoice and letter for their pleasure. Which they duly paid and apologised to me. But then when i threatened them with false representation and costs of tens of thousands should they carry out the threat to take me to court, on top of my claim for £200 an hour in loss earnings for each hour i spend dealing with any such claim. Then its hardly surprising to see them pay up esepcially since as this is primary a place of residents their is no legislation that supported their claim that i required a license. Next they'll be saying i needed a license from them to have and use computers here, in case people listen to music of the internet - Oh wait they did say that to me too lol.

[megan]

Re: pulic performance licence

thats what i thought i dont play a radio in the workshop it would only be customers cars that would have there radios on and as i say the cars are outside . thanks for the responses people . so i will just ignore the calls and letters in future .

Hi Stephen, Have a look at a previous thread (search "music licence") regarding the problem I had with them. Talking to a couple of garages local to me it seems they've been doing the rounds, think they target specific businesses and areas and see who'll pay up. Hope this helps and good luck.