Technically speaking, you cannot play a CD, DVD, VHS or any other type of media for your friends, at your house, without paying license fees. Copyright law is not very flexible or friendly to people. The music and movie industries widely ignore small gatherings and home parties, but have been known to go after people hosting "public" parties if they use music without industry permission at their party. And yes, they're dick-ish enough to sue over a live musician performing a cover of old 60's recordings, which are still under copyright. On 10/13/10 10:21 AM, Heather Hohlowski wrote:

Seems reasonable to me. So does this mean if I were to host a party at my house i wouldn't be allowed to play CDs? This seems nonsensical to me... If they ever did come after us or "audit" us, I bet we could get local news coverage of such stupidity...

------------------------------------------------------------------------ *From:* AMuse *To:* MCBR Leadership *Sent:* Wed, October 13, 2010 9:49:53 AM *Subject:* [Leadershipgroup] Proofread of an email please? :)

Hi all!

I contacted BMI this year to ask about a nonprofit license to play recorded music at our holiday party, as a backup plan in case Mal's band cannot play. They sent me a quote for $211, which I told their license person was probably too expensive for us to pay.

This morning an 'executive' of licensing called me back to hard-pressure me into paying the fee, insinuating legal threats and auditing our party. They also said that having live musicians still requires the license, even if they play music of their own composition or public domain music (which I a 99% sure is untrue).

Here is my reply to his follow-up email with a second quote, for $211, for our 4-hour party.

Please let me know if you think this is an out of line response, as I am very annoyed right now. Otherwise I'd like to send it.

======================== Michael: I appreciate your concern for our legal well-being.

You have offered us a license fee of $211 /*minimum*/ as a "Music promoter" for a 4-hour Christmas party. We are a nonprofit volunteer bird rescue, not a music promoter or bar/restaurant owner. $211 is more than enough to save a parrot from euthanasia at a shelter. Our board and volunteers cannot fathom spending that much simply to have recorded music at our party.

We will find a musician to play live music of their own composition (or public domain) at our party, or we will do without music entirely (and a drab party that will be!). If you had some price that we could reasonably afford, such as $20 or $40, we would be happy to pay it.

Aside from the above facts, I am very disappointed that after I pointed out our concerns on the phone, you chose to lecture me on the finer points of copyright law. On behalf of our rescue, I *wanted* to be proactive and keep us on the right side of the law, which is why I contacted you in the first place. At this point, I feel that I contacted BMI in good faith and was instead insulted and threatened. If this is how you choose to do business with everyone, I can easily see why the music industry has a music piracy problem.

--Matt ========================

_______________________________________________ Leadershipgroup mailing list Leadershipgroup@mickaboo.org https://mickaboo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/leadershipgroup

Even Xmas carols can be copyrighted by the band playing them on the CD if they've registered their version of the public piece, I believe. I think the letter sounds good, but I'd probably leave off the last line, in the full light of day. It's not worth it, I don't think. In the next-to-last line, I would say you "felt" you were insulted etc, not "was." Just end the note with something simple that indicates we will solve our music issue a different way. p On Oct 13, 2010, at 10:52 AM, Michelle Yesney wrote:

In the past, when we played recorded music we just played traditional Christmas carols. Does that effect this conversation at all? (I know some Christmas music, such as White Christmas, Jingle Bell Rock, Blue Christmas, etc. are relatively recent (meaning about my age!), but most of the Christmas music is "traditional".

On Wed, Oct 13, 2010 at 10:21 AM, Heather Hohlowski wrote: Seems reasonable to me. So does this mean if I were to host a party at my house i wouldn't be allowed to play CDs? This seems nonsensical to me... If they ever did come after us or "audit" us, I bet we could get local news coverage of such stupidity...

From: AMuse To: MCBR Leadership Sent: Wed, October 13, 2010 9:49:53 AM

Subject: [Leadershipgroup] Proofread of an email please? :)

Hi all!

I contacted BMI this year to ask about a nonprofit license to play recorded music at our holiday party, as a backup plan in case Mal's band cannot play. They sent me a quote for $211, which I told their license person was probably too expensive for us to pay.

This morning an 'executive' of licensing called me back to hard- pressure me into paying the fee, insinuating legal threats and auditing our party. They also said that having live musicians still requires the license, even if they play music of their own composition or public domain music (which I a 99% sure is untrue).

Here is my reply to his follow-up email with a second quote, for $211, for our 4-hour party.

Please let me know if you think this is an out of line response, as I am very annoyed right now. Otherwise I'd like to send it.

======================== Michael: I appreciate your concern for our legal well-being.

You have offered us a license fee of $211 minimum as a "Music promoter" for a 4-hour Christmas party. We are a nonprofit volunteer bird rescue, not a music promoter or bar/restaurant owner. $211 is more than enough to save a parrot from euthanasia at a shelter. Our board and volunteers cannot fathom spending that much simply to have recorded music at our party.

We will find a musician to play live music of their own composition (or public domain) at our party, or we will do without music entirely (and a drab party that will be!). If you had some price that we could reasonably afford, such as $20 or $40, we would be happy to pay it.

Aside from the above facts, I am very disappointed that after I pointed out our concerns on the phone, you chose to lecture me on the finer points of copyright law. On behalf of our rescue, I wanted to be proactive and keep us on the right side of the law, which is why I contacted you in the first place. At this point, I feel that I contacted BMI in good faith and was instead insulted and threatened. If this is how you choose to do business with everyone, I am beginning to understand why the music industry has what you choose to define as a music "piracy" problem.

--Matt ========================

_______________________________________________ Leadershipgroup mailing list Leadershipgroup@mickaboo.org https://mickaboo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/leadershipgroup

_______________________________________________ Leadershipgroup mailing list Leadershipgroup@mickaboo.org https://mickaboo.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/leadershipgroup