Government run amok

Sadly, I can see this happening in the USA as well: From The Telegraph:

Woman who plays classical music to soothe horses told to get licence
Rosemary Greenway has been playing passages of opera and orchestral symphonies on the radio to the animals at her stables for more than 20 years, convinced that it helps soothe them.

While not all of her staff are quite as fond of the output of Classic FM as she is, Mrs Greenway, 62, kept the radio tuned to the station religiously while mucking out because of the apparent benefits.

But she has dropped the practice after being told that she must pay a �99 annual licence fee as it constitutes a "performance".

Because her stables, the Malthouse Equestrian Centre in Bushton, Wilts, employs more than two people it is treated in the same way as shops, bars and caf�s which have to apply for a licence to play the radio.

She received a telephone call from the Performing Right Society � now officially known as PRS for Music � which was targeting stables as part of a drive to get commercial premises to pay for licences.

Rather than pay the fee, she now leaves the radio off except on Sundays when she is alone at the stable yard.

"I actually use my radio for the benefit of the horses as Classic FM helps them relax," she said.

I used to know someone who has an Inn on a nearby island and ASCAP and BMI would come around regularly checking to see if he was playing music and to shake him down if he was. He got around it by playing performances from Eastern Europe -- at that time, there was no reciprocal copyright agreement so these could be played without penalty. I am all for artists getting payed for their work but these agencies fall under Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy:

Pournelle's Iron Law of Bureaucracy states that in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.