BMI Suffers “Incalculable Damage” By Another Bar Playing Songs Without Permission

BMI (New York, NY) and a variety of rights holders and artists have sued Ulster, Inc., operator of O’Neill’s (Salem, MA) and its managers / officers for copyright infringement.  BMI alleges that O’Neill’s played five songs from the BMI repertoire without permission.

 

Business establishments shouldn’t be playing copyrighted songs without permission.  But I’m not sure that “defendants’ entire course of conduct” (the complaint only alleges the playing of the five songs) is “causing plaintiffs great and incalculable damage.”  It’s that kind of rhetoric, and the attitude that goes with it, that gives BMI a bad name.

 

Broadcast Music, Inc. v. Ulster, Inc., 10-11107-NG (D. Mass. July 1, 2010)