James Delahunty
25 Sep 2009 14:34
In yet another bizarre demand, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) is demanding that mobile operators pay licensing fees because their customers use ringtones. In a nutshell, according to ASCAP, when your mobile phone rings with a copyrighted ringtone, it counts as a public performance.
Even more bizarre is Verizon's agreement to pay $5 million to ASCAP as an interim license fee for ringtone use by its users. ASCAP is the same group that considers girl scouts singing around campfires as a public performance, so their latest assertion is only mildly ridiculous in comparison to that, but it did provoke the ire of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).
The EFF is urging a federal court to reject the "outlandish" claim made by ASCAP. Mobile carriers pay royalties for ringtones that they sell to their customers, but even in that case, ASCAP told a federal court that each time a phone rings and plays these recordings, the phone user is violating copyright law.
ASCAP said it has no intention or pursuing individual users for this "crime", but instead it will go after the mobile phone service providers that enable it. However, the EFF has warned that if ASCAP is allowed to prevail in this case, then other copyright owners would be free to go after individual users. Even just charging the mobile operator for the ringtone user by its customers will surely increase the cost for consumers, sets a very bad precedent and runs the risk of stifling innovation in the field.