2010-05-05 P & R Agenda Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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______ has receiltly� gone thrc�ttgh this. I resisted ASC �PS's effaxts for a couple of �-ears. but the C'it�� !lttornev determined that ue needed to pai� t11��z. Sounds like ASCAP wants you to police everyone who performs in your auditorium(s) to see if they have appropriate copywriter permission(s). Do you have an attorney who specializes in intellectual property. If, indeed, ASCAP is offering to perform that duty for the City and indemnify the City for potential copywriter infringement, it might be worth considering. I guess I would ask the City Attorney if the City has any legal responsibility to enforce copywriter laws. You may have not liability and, therefore, would need no protection The City of X does have a license with ASCAP, mainly for our Conference Center activities. It is my understanding that when the issue was reviewed by our legal dept. several years ago it was determined that copy write laws do require payment for use of copy written materials used. This is one legitimate way to meet this legal obligation. The City of Y has had an agreement with them for many years. We have an ice area and we play music when the rink is open for public skating. We also have outdoor speakers in our downtown area and play pre-recorded music (CD's) over them. It has been our understanding that we are required by law to have this license in order to play the pre-recorded music. Since we have had this license with them for so many years, our experience has only been renewing the license every year. STEVE, et al. I Our attny. advised us to pay. We also have a hall that we rent out. I don't know if this is a mild form of extortion or legitimate, but for $260/yr., it's not worth the fight. I believe that we may have paid for this in X also, perhaps because of the on-sale bar that we ran there at that time. I From my previous experience with entities like ASCAP I've concluded that they benefit performing arts facilities with a broader venue than LAAC e.g. Ted Mann - U of M. Maybe that's changed! In any event I recall that groups performing at LAAC sign an agreement in which they accept the copyright I responsibility. We've signed agreements with both ASCAP and BMI for playing music on our Main Street. We've split the cost with the Chamber of Commerce. I think the combined billing for the two is in the area of $500/year. They have a fixed municipal rate which makes participation pretty much hassle free. Briefly, my experience in X has been that you will spend more resources (time/money) trying to determine if it is appropriate than the cost of the license. We found that we did not have the copyright protection that we probably should have. The question is: "who cares?" I would like to see the LMC provide an opinion on this one. I think the ASCAP folks are going to keep hanging around cities until you simply give-in and buy the Iicense. We have signed onto this agreement City of X pays the ASCAP fee due to the fact that we use music for ice shows, Community Center plays etc... It is just easier to pay the govt. public facilides rate than risk the lawsuit. I do believe that our attorney did modify the agreement in a small way.