Cell phone ringtones don't count as musical performances, so their composers aren't entitled to performance royalties, a federal court has ruled.
The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) had argued that every time a phone's ringtone plays, it counts as a musical performance, entitling the song's composer to money from the wireless carrier. However, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote ruled against this claim for several reasons that, to me, seem quite logical.
First of all, Cote said, the carrier doesn't control when a phone rings -- that's obviously in the hands of consumers -- nor does it make any money off the alleged "performance." Moreover, a ringtone that's heard among a social group doesn't count as a performance, Cote ruled. You'd at least need a public space and a lot of people for that interpretation to apply.
Opponents of ASCAP's claim had argued that a ringtone going off in public is akin to playing car stereo with the windows down, Ars Technica reports. Along that line, the Electronic Frontier Foundation lauded the decision, arguing that it extends to playing one's radio on a beach or singing "Happy Birthday" in a public park. ASCAP, the EFF reminds us, had in 1996 sought royalties from Girl Scouts and summer camps for singing songs around a campfire.
The reason ASCAP felt entitled to royalties is because ringtone providers did pay for performances at one point, and some still do. I don't understand this logic, but I'm not a legal expert. The group still collects a payment when a ringtone is downloaded.
Meanwhile, ASCAP has other money-making plans in the works. The group is lobbying Congress to classify 30-second song samples as previewed on iTunes, along with movie and TV downloads, as performances, entitling them to similar royalties that they sought in the ringtone case.
