ASCAP sues the Girl Scouts

I was wondering if anyone else had noticed the front page article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday. It appears that ASCAP is threatening the Girl Scouts and other "summer camp" organizations over songs around the camp fire. If the song is copyright, they want their money. Notice that "Happy Birthday" is included. Apparently camps are settling. I recall that a two week summer camp was agreeing to pay ASCAP around $500 dollars a year.

The reason this links to filk is that our song circles often use copyright tunes for which we write new words. And by the definition quoted in the WSJ, any song circle which was openly advertised (i.e. on the net) would be considered a "public performance". Certainly performances at Cons would qualify. Has anyone thought about what's going to happen when they get around to us? The big music companies have been working their way down from the bigger violaters to smaller over the last few decades.

Thoughts?
Douglas McCorison
(co-coordinator of EMHMMFSS) Received on 08/22/96