Listening to radios at work is illegal

Posted at: 11:44am 8th October 2007 by Ben Hardwidge

PRS attempts to sue Kiwk-Fit for £200,000 of damages for copyright infringement via employees’ radios

Is there anything you can do with music that doesn’t make you a thieving, blood-thirsty pirate in the eyes of the music industry? If you were going to be a truly law-abiding citizen then you wouldn’t copy any of your music to use for your car or MP3 player and, apparently, you wouldn’t listen to a radio at work either.

It’s all about copyright infringement, which is something that the Performing Rights Society (PRS) takes very seriously. So seriously, in fact, that it’s currently suing Kwik-Fit because its employees’ radios could be heard by customers and work colleagues and thus infringes copyright.

PRS appears to have had its eye on Kwik-Fit for some time, and according to the BBC has ‘lodged details of countrywide inspection data over the audible playing of music at Kwik-Fit on more than 250 occasions in and after 2005.’

Lord Emslie, the judge at a procedural hearing at the Court of Session in Edinburgh, told the BBC: 'The key point to note, it was said, was that the findings on each occasion were the same with music audibly "blaring" from employee's radios in such circumstances that the defenders' [Kwik-Fit] local and central management could not have failed to be aware of what was going on.’

Okay, so central management probably did know what was going on, but it’s probably fair to say that they didn’t really care as thousands of workplaces across the country have a radio at work that can be heard by colleagues and customers. Is this a fair case for copyright infringement or a case of the music industry being too heavy handed? Let us know your thoughts.

Via BBC News.