The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada, which collects royalties for musicians, has targeted dental offices in its latest campaign. The group is asking them to cough up a yearly fee if they use copyrighted music to entertain patients.

story here
http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2004/07/23/dentist_music040723.html

Good pun asking densists to cough up. Yuk Yuk. Even funnier is why they play music at all. Muzak thru the walls wouldn't calm my nerves from the thought of a 200 lb guy standing on my chest yanking at my molars.

I can just see pizza parlors all around the country getting fined when they sing happy birthday to kids having parties

Why can't they just leave people alone? One day they may need to go see one of these dentists....hopefully these dentists will have no mercy.........

this is getting rediculous.

=/...

sanity kudasai.

I'm with boggieman.

This is INSANE.

Am I sick if right now I am rubbing my hands together with an evil grin contemplating going into dentistry? Looks like you've got about 20 cavities there son.. who'd ya say ya worked for again? One of the labels? Ya don't say.. *hits the switch on the drill* It'll be over before you can say "Please stop oh god it hurts I'm sorry for everything god." Because I don't think it makes me sick =)

"I can just see pizza parlors all around the country getting fined when they sing happy birthday to kids having parties"

I might be wrong.. but isn't there a reason that no restaurant you go to anymore actually sings the happy birthday song? They all clap and sing corny crap. They say they're preserving culture. They essentially outlawed happy birthday. They are destroying our culture.

actually, most restaurants are already paying ASCAP royalties, therefore they can sing/play whatever they want.

One reason they don't sing the b-day song hardly anymore is because the employees hate doing it, it makes them look dumb in front of a bunch of people (sometimes family members, friends, etc.) -- Its much easier to serve them a pizza and just walk away, and let the partygoers sing the happy birthday song. (And let ASCAP go after them!)

I can see it now:
"TEN 11,12 and 13 YEAR OLD GIRLS ALONG WITH ONE ADULT SUED BY MUSIC INDUSTRY FOR FAILING TO PAY FOR B-DAY SONG"

Sigh......
-Gib

The last place I worked at didn't sing the Happy Birthday song anymore just because of the royalty crap. Now they do the Happy Happy Birthday, or whatever they call it.

this stuff is gay...gay as in extremely stupid and idotic. well, one benefit will be that next the elevator music will go away. soon they'll sue for that. what about jukeboxes? they say it's not "your" music? that's where the law is wrong. i don't care who says otherwise, i paid for the damn cd...i'll do anything i want to with it!!!

This could easily be extended in many ways. Make no mistake - this would set an enormous precedent.

Picture the personally owned CD's of the average office employee wafting over the cube walls to everyone around them. O dear - thats 8 people being 'entertained' by 'company staff' better cough up your royalty fee.

If it sounds ludicrous, its because it is. My dentist - plays the music he likes to listen to. We're not talking he's got a jukebox that plug quarters into here.

This always goes in incremental steps. Just because current legistlation says if its 'inadvertently overhear' its ok - doesn't mean that won't be their next target after they've drained the blood they expect from the business sector.

Eventually they'll be trying to dock you for playing your own cd's at a house party.

Silver lining = great opportunity to market independent music to dentists.

They are always looking for another pocket to wring, another victum to find.

Maybe the best thing would be to let the majors die. I also play, charge me for that one, majors!

Well I guess we better call all the dentist we know and offer some Indie music!! Let ASCAP,BMI put the nail in the coffin for the major labels hahahah!! as we have more ways to promote music.

"this stuff is gay...gay as in extremely stupid and idotic."

You know, there is one thing I dislike even more than the RIAA: gay bashing.

He wasn't gay bashing. It's how kids talk.

Yeah, my nephew says the same thing about something they think is dumb. I wouldn't be surprised by the time I turn 60 half the words in the dictonary will have new meanings.

I'm really old, I still remember when gay meant being happy and lighthearted. None of the new gay terminologies comes remotely close to that anymore.

And the record industry's arm, SOCAN, going after dentists and restraunts is in no way 'gay' in my estimation, the fools.

Next the RIAA will extort money from the kids in the garage band down the street.

"The distinction is that the music is not their property," he said. "And if it's being used in a public fashion or any kind of commercial fashion, then [musicians] deserve to be compensated for its use."

But they are compensated - when the CD is purchased in the first place.

Pure greed. Sheesh.

BTW, go indie. ;o)

The music industry must really seem bent on killing their greatest source of free promotion. If anything, the RIAA should be paying THEM for playing their music.

Whenever you walk into a record store, they always have music playing by all the latest bands over the pa system. Why do they do that? Because they are a record store. They're trying to PROMOTE the very wares that they sell. Extorting people who play BG music is like Coca-Cola threatening people who flash their corporate logo everywhere. There is a reason why Coca-Cola is the best known trademark in the world. While other companies spend BILLIONS to promote their products, for some reason the RIAA sees fit to PENALIZE the general public for doing the same.

Makes no sense to me.

...that's all i got to say about that

Pretty soon it will be easier to hire musicians to follow you around and do improv selections.

mmnuc3

By the way, Socan already collects royalties on music played in elevators , restraunts and halls were venues are held, such as weddings, etc, ( in Canada )..have for some time now, so dentists, doctors, etc, are just a natural extension.

"He wasn't gay bashing. It's how kids talk."

Maybe we should remind them that what they think is so cool is actually gay bashing... I know "kids" talk like this, I get it all the time in online games. But it's gay bashing and it's connecting to a lot of problems for gay people during high-school years...

I know he didn't mean it. And that's the problem. I don't think people should associate bad things to "gay". A little bit like chinese use the same symbole for woman and broomstick.

Oh, sorry, Mr RIAA member, I can't use novocain while I do these three root canals on you. The novocain people didn't get my royalty check in time to license me this month.


BTW: It doesn't matter whether it's "how they speak" or not, it is gay bashing. The word was picked specifically to state that the gay community and their way of life is stupid, and it just kept going from there. It's like saying "black cloud over his head" instead of "dark cloud over his head". It's racism/bigotry at his highest level... trying to make it cutesy and the in thing. Start thinking for yourself, that's the real in thing.

Well, I'm likely to start the 3rd world war here, it was the "gay" community itself that chose to change the original terminology of the word 'gay" to describe themselves. Adopted the term, if you please. Gay still has other meanings and can be used in many different forms.

To this day, I still don't know why, or how it came about, but while on the subject, up here in Canada the 'gay' community is trying to change the terminology of "marriage", so why would they object to someone else's choice of using a specific word to describe something else. I don't think the gay community has a copywrite on the term "gay", which originally started out as the following.....

animated, blithe, bouncy, cheerful, cheery, effervescent, elastic, fanciful, flippant, frolicsome, gay, graceful, happy, high-spirited, jaunty, light, light-hearted, lively, merry, nonchalant, resilient, sprightly, volatile, whimsical

Gay became insulting ONLY because it is used to described homosexual people. It's difficult to find more targeted intolerance.

Your explanation-justification is pathetic:

I hereby decide that pepe512000 will now mean asshole. No offense intended, it's just by chance. You don't have a copyright on pepe512000 do you ? No ? Good. So I can change the name the way I want. Pepe means grandaddy in French anyway you know, you changed the meaning why should you have to right to do so and not me ? As I said anyway, I'm just changing the meaning of a word, you shouldn't feel targeted and it's not because of you at all.

See that's the kind of gay-bashing rationale you were using. Not so good an explanation anymore I guess...

Sfolivier

I'm sorry, I just don't have a clue what your rational is here. You can call anything you want anything, I guess thats up to you. It's pretty lame though..oh, excuse me, I must have just offended a wheelchaired person!

Thats all I was saying. I really think the gay community as a whole, are way too sensitve, and I think you protest too much!

Gay became insulting ONLY because it is used to described homosexual people. It's difficult to find more targeted intolerance.

Are you saying homosexuals do not like to be called gays? I never realized they considered the term insulting. The people I know here use it all the time...do they just like insulting themselves?

You are right, you are obviously not grasping my rationale.

I will try to make it clearer.

By using "gay" as an insult, you make the assumption that being gay is insulting. This assumption is gay bashing.

When you insult someone, you try to lower the person, humiliate and hurt. That's the point of verbal violence. In this thread someone used the word "gay" to show that the RIAA was really lame. Is it supposed to be insulting to be considered gay ? Is it supposed to reflect bad things about the RIAA ?

I have some pretty cool gay friends and I don't see why comparing the RIAA to them should lower the RIAA or make a bad statement about the RIAA.

Homosexuals don't mind being called gay and that's the word I hear them use the most. However, they DO mind when someone use it as an insult, as if being them was insulting and degrading.

I'm not too sensitive. Violence against gay is very real, and very common in highschools. The fact that teens use the word gay as an insult is not neutral. It reflects the fact that being gay is to them an insulting condition. (like being a piece of shit or a jerk). THAT is the problem. THAT is gay bashing.

Last, you should watch the movie "The Taste of Others". It has a great scene in an art gallery.

A businessman is invited to the opening and notice that the artist, Jean-Claude, he barely knows is very sad and preoccupied. He approaches him:

"What's wrong, it's going great, lot's of people! You're not happy?"

A friend beside Jean-Claude answers.

"No, the art critics are not here. They won't show up".

And the businessman bursts:

"Ah, faggots, bunch of rats those critics, faggots!"

Blank face on the artist and his friend. Finally the friend asks quietly:

"Faggots? You mean a man who has sex with another man, like Jean-Claude and I?"

"Err, mmm. Sorry, I mean... I didn't mean it this way... I didn't think..."

"Yeah, I know it never means anything. That's the problem".

Ok, I can see where you are coming from. Fine, but this was in relation to this statement

"this stuff is gay...gay as in extremely stupid and idotic."

He was speaking about the stupidity of dentists having to pay royalties to SOCAN
It had absolutley NOTHING to do with the gay community. The kids have accepted this terminology for their own useful purpose....

....The word was picked specifically to state that the gay community and their way of life is stupid,....

How is an average person suppose to know this? What are people suppose to do nowadays, as it always seems that somebody is always stepping on someone else toes, as the rules are changing by the hour apparently....

I'm sick to death of having to be politically correct all the time for fear I might hurt someones feelings, or get sued for saying the wrong thing, writing the wrong thing, copying the wrong thing, etc, etc, (By the way, that's the whole thing thats wrong with copyright as well.)

You were the one who related it to the gay community as bashing, which I felt it certainly was not! That wasn't even unintentional gay bashing; it wasn't even about gay people, but You made it that way.

And thats what I meant about the sensitivity thing. Sensitive people ALWAYS think it's about them.

I give up.

Sfolivier

You have to understand, # one, I'm a woman (whatever that means) and number 2, my name pepe, was shortened from my nickname pepper, so named for my bad temper and I never give up when I sink my teeth into something..so it's just as well you are giving up

Your loss

oh my god i cant believe they are using litigation for priofit against dentists
this is communist to the 9th power here
well any riaa gets a denbtal check up is gonna end up toothless
ill tell my sister this she owns a dentist office
she will get real pissed about this
she plays her own music in the office
what is this country comming to
i will never buy another cd ever

"i will never buy another cd ever"

Yeah that's the idea. Boycott RIAA.

ever see the dentist the movie 1 and 2??
heh
hope fully a discrunled dentist
drills all their teeth out
geez rthis is america not north korea
tis isnt right and that bitchass orrin hatch, i watched the induce video
he didnt even listen toa single person. he also lies through his teeth (heh theeth) about all these 1770 or so tech companies support the induce act..
what a liar
all 1770 tech companioes spokepersons came out and said strigt out they were lying and should recantthat last statement of support
theres money play and bribery happeningh ere
becasue orrin hatch didnt get a damn clue and leahy was just yea yea ok uh huh
what ever
liikke fucking puppets
the only person in the room supporting those two traitors was that sissy ass looking riiaa ceo who was dumber than george w bush that guy was as puppeted as leahy and hatch.
not one person exept the riaa ceo in that hearing suported those two
i hope the supreme court doesnt sign ths into law
the american people should have ben asked to bote on this as a proposition
like legalizing pot
i bet you the american people would say hell no and vote no for induce
but sincethey know the american peple are too powerful and are always against the government
they just hid behind false morals and passed it without asking us
this is shitty
and voter fraud at its ugliest
imagine it
file sharing a felony
theres like 2/43rds of the usa that fileshares at least 3 times a week
and 70% of those two thirds would get caught underr this act
felonizing the majority of major voters
the is what democrats want and republicans have wet dreams about
the chance to ligitametly abuse a law to their benefit
all im saying is everything ive said that others called paranoid has come true
its not paranoia if they are really out to get you or sue you or what ever
this is facism 101
they are afraid of a free america
and have betrayed its citizens in the grossest manner
i hope the riaa s greedyest gets shot in the face by a crackhead