Restaurant fined over $40K for playing music without a license

If you thought going out to eat was expensive, consider the steep price for being caught playing unlicensed music in a restaurant: $7,612 per song. Now, multiply that by four. That’s how much the owners of North Carolina-based Fosters American Grille have been ordered to pay following a successful, aggressive civil lawsuit brought by BMI.

Raleigh’s local news site WRAL covered the ruling last week. North Carolina’s Eastern District court found that defendants Cameron Hospitality Inc. and John Weskett Powers, the owners of the restaurant, had “intentionally and willfully infringed upon the copyrights of four musical compositions owned by [BMI].” A judge awarded the music company $30,450 in damages and another $10,742 for its court and attorney fees.

According to the report, BMI said it had attempted to contact Fosters’ management 56 times to settle the matter. The group’s efforts were unrequited. The music played without the proper licensing agreement included songs by Michael Jackson and R. Kelly.

Powers and his partner Ralph Nelson have since closed Fosters American Grille, though maintain that neither the lawsuit nor the judgment are the cause.

BMI is a performing rights organization that handles music licensing for more than 6.5 million songs by over 475,000 artists according to its official site. As such, it has “a serious obligation” to combat unlicensed musical performances said Robbin Ahrold, BMI’s Vice President of Corporate Communications and Marketing.

“BMI licenses more than 600,000 businesses across the country, including more than 3,000 in North Carolina and more than 500 in the Raleigh-Durham area,” said Ahrold. “Very few of them ever get to the point where we have to file a court action to protect the copyrights of our songwriters.” (via TechDirt)