In one of the more bizarre lawsuits recently, ASCAP sued cell phone carriers saying that when ringtones went off in a public place it was a “performance” and so infringed the author’s copyright and royalties were due. This suit was brought despite the fact that operators already pay ASCAP royalties for use of the tones.
Yesterday a federal court, showing a degree of sanity in an ever stranger copyright world, held that a ringtone going off in public was not a “public performance” and did not infringe copyright as the playing was done “without the purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage”. As the Electronic Frontier Foundation pointed out this ruling will also keep the driver of a car who is playing of music with the windows down from infringing copyrights.
For the full details you can take a look at the EFF’s report and you can go to bed tonight listening to music and leave your windows open without fear that ASCAP will prosecute you.
