A St. Albans restaurant and bar is among a growing list of small establishments across the country being sued for alleged copyright infringement by Broadcast Music Inc., an organization that collects public performance royalties on behalf of musicians.
Grumpy's Waterfront Grille was named in a lawsuit filed in federal court in Charleston over the alleged unauthorized public performance of music. BMI claims that on July 25 and 26, 13 songs from the BMI Repertoire were played at Grumpy's.
Grumpy's owners haven't paid BMI to be allowed to play music of which its members own the royalties, the lawsuit filed Oct. 2 says. The complaint also names Grumpy's owners Jeremy Casebolt, John Lilly, Patrick Dunn and Jody Franco as defendants.
Casebolt said Monday he wasn't aware of the lawsuit. He recalled being contacted by BMI several years ago.
"They said, 'BMI represents certain songs and if you play these songs in your place you have to pay a fee.' I thought it was a joke at first, but then I got a letter from them and did some research," Casebolt said.
Casebolt said he remembered asking a BMI representatives to send him a list of songs that he couldn't play at Grumpy's without paying BMI first. BMI never did, he said, and he forgot about it.
"We've reached out [to Grumpy's] for several years," Jodie Thomas, spokeswoman for BMI, said Monday. "Actually since 2012, with calls and letters."
The BMI Repertoire consists of more than seven million songs, Thomas said. BMI represents about 50 percent "of all the music that's out there," she added.
BMI, and other performing rights organizations, acquire rights from writers and publishers and then sell licenses to use its repertoire. The licenses may be as little as $300 a year and as much as $9,000, according to its website. The cost is based on, among other factors, the size of an establishment. The fees, minus operating expenses, all go to writers and publishers.
"At the end of the day, our job is to be an advocate on behalf of songwriters and composers who rely on these royalties as their main sources of income," said Thomas. "A lot of businesses don't realize they need to pay. We try to educate.
"A lawsuit is the very last resort."
The lawsuit lists 13 songs the company accuses the bar of playing from its repertoire on a weekend in July. "Free Bird," written by Allen Collins and Ron Van Zant; "Mountain Music," written by Randy Owen; "Mustang Sally," by Bonny Rice; "Old Time Rock and Roll," by George Jackson and Thomas E. Jones III, and "Workin' Man Blues," by Merle Haggard, are a few of the songs the bar is accused of playing.
How would BMI know Grumpy's played those songs? Thomas said an agent from the company actually went to the establishment. Grumpy's offers live music several times a week, Thomas pointed out.
According to a 2010 New York Times article, The Music-Copyright Enforcers, the Internet makes an enforcer's job much easier as venues advertise online which nights they offer live music or karaoke; state governments post liquor-license and corporate registries that give the names and addresses of business owners.
Copyright infringement violators face fines of anywhere from $750 to $150,000 per song. And, as a last resort, BMI takes legal action. In 2010, BMI had never lost a single case it had tried in 51 years, the newspaper reported.
"If you buy a CD by, say, Ryan Adams, or download one of his songs from iTunes, and play it at your family reunion, even if 500 people come, you owe nothing," the article states. "But if you play it at a restaurant you own, then you must pay for the right to harness Adams's creativity to earn money for yourself. Which leaves you with three choices: you can track down Ryan Adams, make a deal with him and pay him directly; you can pay a licensing fee to the [performing rights organization] that represents him - in this case, BMI; or you can ignore the issue altogether and hope not to get caught."
The lawsuit against Grumpy's asks that a judge order the restaurant to stop infringing on copyrighted material and pay statutory damages and attorneys' fees.
BMI is being represented locally by Charleston attorneys Jason P. Foster and Russell D. Jessee, of Steptoe and Johnson. The case is assigned to U.S. District Judge Thomas Johnston.
In 2004, BMI filed a similar lawsuit alleging copyright infringement against Midnight Rodeo, a Huntington nightclub.
U.S. District Judge Robert Chambers entered a default judgment against the nightclub after it never responded to the complaint, but BMI, instead, asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed without prejudice, meaning it could be refiled.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.