BMI Artists Suing Bar for Use of Songs

[michelej1]

Toby Keith, Large Segment of the Music Industry Are Suing a Tiny North Texas Bar

Dallas Observer By Eric NicholsonFri., Jun. 14 2013 at 12:33 PM

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfa..._sued_by_s.php

A half hour south of Fort Worth and a couple of miles down a narrow Farm-to-Market road near Alvarado, you'll find the Turkey Creek Bar & Grill. It's an easy-going place with a dirt parking lot, corrugated roof and a generous front porch. You could almost call it a honky-tonk, but it's probably fairer just to say its a friendly watering hole where you can kick back, enjoy a cold one and treat yourself to an evening of midget wrestling.

Somehow, despite its remote location and welcoming atmosphere, Turkey Creek has made Toby Keith very, very mad. Stevie Nicks, too. And Hank Williams Jr., Pat Green and Evanescence. Matter of fact, a sizable chunk of the U.S. music industry, including record labels like Sony and EMI, is taking aim at Turkey Creek in a federal lawsuit.

The musicians and record labels, led by rights-management company BMI, claim the bar infringed upon a dozen copyrights on the night of August 12, 2011, by hosting an "unauthorized public performance of musical compositions from the BMI Repertoire." The lawsuit doesn't specify the occasion, nor does the bar's Facebook timeline, but the court filings do include a copy of the set list, which includes Nicks' "Landslide" and "Rhiannon"; Evanescence's "Bring Me to Life"; and Toby Keith's "I Ain't As Good As I Once Was."

There's an interesting piece in The New York Times Magazine from a couple of years ago about BMI's efforts to get bars, restaurants, and other businesses to cough up license fees, so this isn't exactly a new phenomenon.

We called the bar, the owners of which had not yet seen the lawsuit. They said they'd take a look and let us know if they have anything to say.

[markolas]

Ridiculous. As much as I love Stevie for her music, I think she's full of crap in oh, so many ways.

[CADreaming]

Guessing, but I would think that's BMI acting on behalf of their artists and they may not even know about it.

[MikeInNV]

Originally Posted by CADreaming

Guessing, but I would think that's BMI acting on behalf of their artists and they may not even know about it.

I'm fairly certain that's the case.

[WildHearted]

So wait - did they play the CDs through the loudspeaker or something, or did a random cover band play all of those songs? It sounds like the latter based on the "public performance" part... but I thought it was kind of normal for local bands to go to restaurants/bars and play a bunch of old songs...

[becca]

BMI has some very aggressive lawyers on payroll. As said I doubt the(ir) artists know a thing about it. Penny wise but pound foolish... which means that for every penny you might squeeze by being this hardline up front you lose pounds of future goodwill and support. Cut some slack you cash-register-hearted uncreative middlemen! How about doing something about the communist Chinese knockoff billion dollar industry instead of some small operation inside the U.S.A. Oh, I forgot, all the big money is in bed with those people under the thumb of the biggest bureaucracy that hates democracy and freedom. You have learned well from your true masters in that case, bring out the barbed wire fences to keep out the rabble wanting jobs from you.

I don't think ASCAP ever acts like this.

[Dex]

Agreed. As much as I'm willing to acknowledge that Stevie is equally a woman of business as a woman of the arts, I just can't see her being in this. She's voiced enough support for Night of a Thousand Stevies for this to make absolutely no sense whatsoever. It's just corporate assholes being corporate assholes. Pretty much par. I suspect now that the story is receiving some attention, they may stop it.

[KarmaContestant]

This is absurd. There isn't a bar in America that doesn't play music. Many of them have DJs who play whatever they want.

Silly, frivolous lawsuits.