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Newport bar owner fined and given suspended sentence for infringing music rights

By | Published on Thursday 2 July 2015

PPL

The owner of a bar in Newport has been given a suspended prison sentence and ordered to pay £20,000 to record industry collecting society PPL for persistently playing recorded music at the venue without a licence.

John Fletcher, owner of The Birdcage, was taken to court after ignoring various warnings from PPL that he was infringing copyright by playing recorded music without a licence from the rights body. The latest hearing followed an injunction that was awarded in the society’s favour against Fletcher back in 2013.

Copyright owners control the performance of their works in public, of course, meaning that any person or company playing recorded music in a public space needs licences from both PRS and PPL, which represent the owners of the separate song and recording copyrights respectively.

Judge Richard Arnold ordered Fletcher to pay £6000 in damages and £14,000 in legal costs, and said that if the venue owner was to play music in his venue without licence again he would face 28 days in jail.

Welcoming the ruling, PPL Operations Director Christine Geissmar told reporters: “There is an intrinsic value that recorded music adds to businesses, and this judgement acknowledges that the performers of the music and record companies should be fairly rewarded”.

Noting the sentence passed, Geissmar added: “This ruling demonstrates how seriously the courts treat copyright infringement and reiterates that music can only be played in public if the right licences are obtained. Businesses that choose to play recorded music without a licence may face legal action and possibly hefty financial and other consequences as a result”.



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