| Actually this law is not stupid, when you purchase a song/cd/mp3 you purchase the right to listen to it privately (at home/car with frineds), the same applies to movies. (the same part of the law also says no copies unless otherwise specified, like in Canada I'm entitled to one legal copy of any media I own for backup) When you play it to a large public audience, especially if you are being paid to do so you are now boradcasting the song.
Radio stations pay around 2$ (iirc) per play of any song they air (broadcast), that's per play.
SO say a radio station plays 'Nickelback - How you remind me' 10 times per day for a month, this means at the end of a 30 day month they cut a check for 600$ to Nickelbacks label, this is one fo the two reaons Pirate Radio stations are illegal (the other being that radio frequencies are liscenced for so many dollars a year, an amount that is (once again iirc) 20k$ a year).
So the liscence gives you the legal ability to broadcast the songs you have in club situations (if you're a private DJ, clubs that have DJ's pay a fee every year)
What's stupid is the fact they won't let you play said songs off of a comp, but you can off of a CD |