Post #326983 by Gigantalope on Tue, Aug 21, 2007 6:49 AM

I was a bar/restaurant owner in the mid '80s in Silicon Valley, and we had some serious go'rounds with ASCAP. (We had an Attorney on retainer, so I took pleasure in screwing with them)

They would even bill us for the Background Music used in sporting events like Monday Night Football which we periodically showed. (This was on top of having a commercial cable line, which seemed like that should have been included) The weird part of their act is periodically they would just close a business down (via litigation) for not paying, then they would sort of let people in the industry know what happened.

It's great that they represent Artists, however the truth is, they really represent themselves, and little of the money gets past them.

If you don't be live we are fast becoming a society of litigant oriented people, compare the pace of American Football with Rugby or Aussie Rules. (Meetings, flags, time outs, replays...)