Legal query regarding music in public

Chochese

Just a quick one for you Legal Eagles on this hypothetical situation...

Lets say that a mate of mine owns a book store in which he plays music from his laptop to keep himself entertained.

A lady enters the store and starts to browse. In the backgrounf the music is playing and as conversation lulls the lyrics "I danced around your folk and soul, I danced to all your ****ing soul..." play through the computer.

To say the lady is shocked at this is an understatement. She goes off into one about how disgrceful it was that she should be subjected to profanities in the shop etc... to which my mate gives a "my shop, my rules" response.

The lady threatens legal action against him because of what she was forced to hear in his shop.

My question is: in he opinion of Boardsies, does she have any grounds to take legal action over this? Is the playing of music with profanity in a shop open to the public a possible area for legal action against the proprioter?


I am fully aware that any response recieved is strictly opinion and does not constitute professional legal advice on on any level on behalf of the poster.

ronnie3585

Christ, sounds like that customer is a complete fruit cake. The only thing I can think of (and it's an extremely tenuous argument) is maybe a common law action for damages. Does a shop owner/operator owe his customers a duty of care re not offending them? And has he breached this duty of care by passively playing a song that contained a swear word? I suppose it's all a matter of interpretation. Personally, I think it's the most ridiculous thing I've heard in a while.

PS Kings of Leon rock!

Tom Young

I'd tend to agree with the last poster. Question might be whether or not the IMRO fees were paid.

Re. Duty of Care. Does really depend on the type of shop!

xbox36016

you have to pay for music to have it in your shop

Tipsy Mac

He would need to be paying IRMA for rights to play the music in said shop to start with.

nuac

I cannot imagine any legal professional, either advocate or judge, heeding that customer.

Tom Young

Sounds like music to my ears! boom boom.

Chochese

Yup, he pays IMRO fees. Usually has music playing through the system but it just so happened to be down for the last few days.

I just find it funny that on theone day he's playing barely audiable music on his laptop is the day the music causes him some jip!

Cheers for the replys lads!

mikemac

On a related note, xtravision don't play 18 movies during opening hours.
Possibly they don't play 15's either, not sure on that.

It's store policy and is done since you are going to have children in the store during opening hours.

studiorat

Chochese wrote: »

Yup, he pays IMRO fees.

Good Man!

That customer has probably found something else to be indignant about by now...

Our man in Havana

micmclo wrote: »

On a related note, xtravision don't play 18 movies during opening hours.
Possibly they don't play 15's either, not sure on that.

It's store policy and is done since you are going to have children in the store during opening hours.

The difference is that xtravision could be prosecuted if it was found showing 15 or 18 films in the shop where children were present.

There is no censorship or classification of music as there is with films.

Thirdfox

Bond-007 wrote: »

The difference is that xtravision could be prosecuted if it was found showing 15 or 18 films in the shop where children were present.

There is no censorship or classification of music as there is with films.

What about those "parental advisory" stickers you get on music CDs?

Or when music is played on the radio they censor the swear words from all the songs?

Our man in Havana

What about those "parental advisory" stickers you get on music CDs?

These have no force in Irish law.

Or when music is played on the radio they censor the swear words from all the songs?

That is up to the radio station. They do it to keep the peace with the BCI and the BCC.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland#Unusual_oversights

Music

Music videos are exempt from film classification, whereas in the UK, they must be classified. Broadcasters usually use their discretion and obey the UK classifications and showing time restrictions. Ireland receives all of the UK music channels, which are subject to UK music video laws; with the only Irish regulated broadcaster regularly showing music videos being Channel 6 or City Channel. However for several years TV3 Ireland ran a late-night music programme, which quite often showed uncensored music videos containing large amounts of nudity.

References to records or songs being "banned" in Ireland refer to one or more radio stations refusing to play the songs rather than any legislative ban, although prior to 1989 it may have been a moot point given that the only legal broadcasting stations in Ireland were those operated by state broadcaster RTÉ. In the 1930s there was even a short-lived airplay ban on an entire genre of music known as the "ban on Jazz" (with an exceptionally wide definition of what constituted "jazz"). Such bans only served to further increase listenership to foreign radio stations (such as Radio Luxembourg and the BBC) in Ireland, and lead to the growth of Irish pirate radio.

Enii

What a silly customer.

Could I object to the Abba song "When I kissed the teacher" because I find the concept of kissing a teacher objectionable. Of course not!

Surely a profanity is subjective - how is a shokeeper meant to know what each and every customer will consider a profanity.

Safer for him to play no music tho, IMO!

cormie

What if somebody was to get into a van that was moving their stuff from one place to another and the driver put on his MP3 player and it contained profanities? Does the driver need an IMRO license in the case that they will be having customers in their van? What if the same van was stuck in traffic on a hot day with the windows open and music up loud enough so passing pedestrians could hear?

Victor

Imagine the type of stuff she could find when flicking through a book!