Clearly they were not satisfied with the royalty payments that the ASCAP already collects on behalf of its members for any public performance of songs or music – from arenas and stadiums to your kid’s summer camps and the royalty payments that all Verizon,  AT&T and all cell phone carriers pay whenever you download a ringtone. 

So they decided to file a lawsuit against Verizon and AT&T in a New York federal court claiming copyright infringement every time a  cellphone’s ringtone begins playing, since others can hear the song. In other words their contention is that a mobile phone is a portable concert hall every time it rings and plays a ringtone !

While the argument is ridiculous and violates common sense and was considered a long shot at best , can you imagine the ensuing chaos had this group actually prevailed in convincing the judge ? It would have meant that the millions of cellphone users would have been violating federal copyright law every time anyone called them !  Can you also imagine the ASCP rubbing its hands in glee at the prospect of the millions of nickels, dimes and quarters pouring into their coffers in a veritable flood of royalty payments – cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching….. ?

Incidentally, their lawsuit was also hoping to double their current fixed royalty payments from $0.24 to $0.48 for each ringtone purchased by Verizon, AT&T and others.  The judge threw out that request as well.

An attorney for the EFF – Electronic Frontier Foundation, stated that it was an “important victory for consumers, making it clear that playing music in public, when done without any commercial purpose, does not infringe copyright”