http://tinyurl.com/be36r
STRICT copyright officials banned guitar shop customers from playing classic riffs like Led Zeppelin's Stairway To Heaven - just like in the film, Wayne's World. The Performing Right Society (PRS) told Regent Guitars in Leamington it would need to buy a licence if customers wanted to strum famous tunes to ensure songwriters were paid royalties. Richard Cholerton, aged 33, owner of the Regent Street shop, said he was shocked when he got a phone call informing him of the regulations. He said: "A call came through from the PRS asking me if I had customers coming in and playing guitars. "I said sometimes they might play well-known pieces such as Stairway and he said 'you need a licence'. "I was flabbergasted. I thought it was a hoax; somebody winding me up. "We are talking about beginners trying a few chords on an instrument before they buy it - these are not performances in front of people clapping and cheering." The shop has produced two tongue-in-cheek posters to ask customers not to play Stairway or Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water for fear of upsetting the PRS. PRS bosses said it was important songwriters got paid if shops and other organisations played their music, but today admitted they had got it wrong in this case. Spokesman Adrian Crookes said: "If that is all that is happening in music shops, and they are not having performances, then no licence is needed. I think we hold our hands up to that and say we were slightly overzealous. "But if music is used in a way to improve a business, is it not fair that the musician who wrote it is not paid as a thank you? "There is a top tier but the vast majority of PRS members earn less than £10,000 a year from royalties." The PRS is a non-profit-making organisation with around 44,000 members consisting of composers, songwriters, authors and publishers of music. xponent Reprise Maru rob _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
