UK’s licensing body PPL brought 230 High Court cases against business operators last year

The UK’s music licensing industry body PPL has reported 230 cases brought to the High Court against operators of leisure establishments for alleged copyright infringements last year.

Data from law firm RPC, and reported on by The Independent, shows the amount of cases brought to the High Court concerning copyright is up 10% on 2013.

Similar to Australia, recorded music and videos are the intellectual property of their creators in the UK and are protected under the Copyright Act. While the Australian Copyright Act grants copyright owners the right to allow their music to be heard via TV and traditional radio in public places (like pubs, retail businesses, nightclubs etc.) via the public performance right, businesses need a license to play protected recordings (CDs, streaming services, digital downloads) in a public place.

According to The Independent, thousands of UK businesses are neglecting to obtain a license or aren’t paying their annual music licensing fees.

The artists involved in PPL’s cases include Pitbull, Calvin Harris and Taylor Swift, who has made bold moves to protect her rights in the last few months. Last year Swift’s label Big Machine pulled her entire catalogue from Spotify – later Swift said streaming felt “like a grand experiment” and that it doesn’t fairly compensate songwriters; in January Swift applied to trademark certain song lyrics from her ARIA #1 LP 1989.

Australia’s non-profit music licensing company PPCA (the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia) currently license more than 50,000 venues Australia-wide, including clubs, hotels, bars, restaurants, fitness centres, cafes, shops, halls and dance studios, as well as radio and television stations.

It urges businesses to obtain a blanket license and operates an enforcement program for non-licensed venues where if the business ignores repeated requests, it takes legal action on behalf of its licensors for the infringement of copyright. Of the recent cases brought against businesses by PPCA for infringing copyright, two were against nightclubs in Sydney and Melbourne in late 2012 and early 2013 respectively, one was against a Melbourne restaurant in April 2013, another against a Sydney salon in June 2012 and another was against a fitness centre in South Australia in April 2012. All five businesses were ordered to pay all licence fees as well as additional damages.