[svlug] perl to help with music output

[Seth David Schoen]

Terrio Echavez writes:

> Also, does one know of legalities of playing mp3s as telephone hold
> music, e.g. should the company purchase CDs?

It's actually even worse than that: playing music to people on hold, if they
are members of the general public, has been interpreted as "public
performance", which is a copyright right (requires a license from the
copyright holder, which is _not_ automatically conveyed with purchase of
the CD).  If you buy CDs and play them to people on hold, you can be
sued for copyright infringement!

In order to play commercial music to people on hold, an organization should
pay copyright clearance fees to ASCAP, BMI, or other representatives of the
copyright holder, in order to avoid getting in trouble.

See, e.g.,

http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/106.html
http://www.ascap.com/licensing/pdfs/onhold.pdf
http://www.bmi.com/iama/business/lodging/onhold.asp

ASCAP and BMI don't represent all copyright holders, but together they do
represent most works published by most major record labels in the United
States.

-- 
Seth David Schoen <schoen at loyalty.org>  | And do not say, I will study when I
Temp.  http://www.loyalty.org/~schoen/  | have leisure; for perhaps you will
down:  http://www.loyalty.org/   (CAF)  | not have leisure.  -- Pirke Avot 2:5