[jambutty]

Originally Posted by shillelagh

BBC NEWS | Scotland | Edinburgh, East and Fife | Kwik-Fit sued over staff radios

I read that and couldnt believe it. Ive always listened to the radio at work. But as i was talking to spug at the same time then he came up with the scenario if i was listening to the radio and talking to him on msn then i could get done as well because i would be broadcasting the radio to him. So if you are listening to the radio and the phone rings you would have to turn the radio off and then answer the phone. Oh and while you are driving down the road windows open radio blasting out think on you could get done for it. This is because some idiot at the performing rights society has decided to take kwik fit to court over their employees personal radios.

Is there no end to the lengths some people will go to, to grab some more money?

Radio stations, legal ones that is, pay a fee for each record that is played on air or it might be just a block fee for all records.

If someone then listens to the radio station they are at liberty to do so without being liable to pay extra fees. As sound has no barriers and can even be heard through the average brick wall someone else could hear the programme whether they like to or not. The sound from a radio does not just reach your own ears and then stop. It carries on like ripples on a pond getting weaker and weaker until it become inaudible.

If Kwik-Fit have a policy of no personal radios, which they claim to have, then they should enforce it. But I feel that they are not liable for any royalties and should be ordered by the court to enforce their own rules.

If the Performing Rights Society is to win this case then the repercussions can be widespread, although how it would be policed is beyond me.

It would mean that strictly in accordance with the law, if someone came into my flat and listened to the radio or records with me they, not me, would have to pay a fee to the Performing Rights Society. Or on a beach when someone has a radio blaring out. Or next door when their radio is turned up and the windows are open. We who heard the row would be liable to pay a fee. Pay a fee to be annoyed by the boom, boom row from up the road? They’ve got be kidding.