We regret to announce that Restless Leg Syndrome and Peter Dragontail have jointly decided to cancel our gig at The Hexagon in Baltimore tomorrow night, out of concern that our performance will likely result in both the venue and ourselves being fined by the ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers).

     So wait, what is the ASCAP, you ask? Well...

     According to their website, the ASCAP "is a membership association of more than 330,000 U.S. composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers of every kind of music" and "protects the rights of its members by licensing and distributing royalties for the non-dramatic public performances of their copyrighted works." To that end, one way they choose to wield their considerable influence is by targeting small, unlicensed venues that typically don't make much, if any, profit from the public performance of licensed songs. This means that cover bands, DJs, jukeboxes, iPods hooked up to a house system, even fucking karaoke, are not permitted to utilize a massive chunk of popular (or even hipster-popular) music in such a venue unless the owner pays an annual license fee. And while the ASCAP does uphold that it is the responsibility of the venue, not the performers, to obtain these licenses, they add that "all who participate in, or are responsible for, performances of music are legally responsible."

     Until now, I personally had never really even thought about this issue. And I have no idea whether bars and clubs in Philadelphia are already licensed for the most part, or if the ASCAP is simply overlooking any non-compliance through some kind of selective policy of salutary neglect (more on this concept in just a bit).

     In any event, what I do know is that we were informed by The Hexagon just yesterday that Baltimore has been experiencing a crackdown by the ASCAP on unlicensed venues (this article from the Baltimore Citypaper goes into more detail), and that as a result we would have to tailor our sets for Saturday accordingly, or quite literally risk paying the consequences. I should also point out that the preferred tactic of the ASCAP has been to send spies with tape recorders to a venue and later analyze the recording for the presence of copyrighted material.

     If you're looking to kill some time at work, check out the search engine for the ASCAP's database of copyrighted works to see just how many ubiquitous classics you can find that are off-limits in an unlicensed venue. It goes past the point of sickening into downright hilarity. What are we supposed to do, play nothing but minimal techno for four or five hours straight? It's neither practical nor possible to do much else. And when you get right down to it, if I want to play "Erotic City" by Prince in the club, I'm damn well going to play it. I'm not going to stop and reflect on the fact that it and 260 other Prince songs are on The List.

     Unfortunately though, we all consented that the only thing we could really do in this situation was to back out of the gig, ostensibly making the ASCAP's tactics of intimidation successful. A culture of fear continues to reign over not just the domain of actual recorded music, but all aspects of the music industry. But rather than launch into a diatribe about the fundamental flaws of the music industry business model, I would just like to point out some glaring contradictions in the ASCAP's enforcement of their policies.

     As the aforementioned article from the Baltimore Citypaper points out, the ASCAP seems to be quite successful at squeezing smaller venues and organizations without them putting up much of a fight, much like a Mafia boss extorting payment for protection. But what about the big dogs? In 1996, the ASCAP notified the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts of America that they would have to pay $10,000 in annual licensing fees, before backing down once they realized what assholes they were coming off as. So why the selective enforcement? If the law is the law, doesn't it apply the same to everyone?

     I've been watching the Republican National Convention on television all week, and I've been seeing a lot of artists come forward in protest because their songs have been used without permission during these circus-like proceedings. From Val Halen to Heart, they're pissed that the RNC did not attempt to secure the rights to these songs before the fact - not that they would even have been granted anyway, they say.

     So where is the ASCAP? If they can go after coffee shops and gallery spaces, then a major political party with barrels and barrels of pork at its disposal should be no different. In fact, this could be just the windfall that the music industry needs to reinvigorate itself. Therefore, I will immediatley be notifying the ASCAP (by either emailing them at glcs@ascap.com or calling 1-800-505-4052, nudge nudge) to begin drafting a license for the RNC to purchase, so that they may avoid any further grievous violations of copyright law and to make sure that artists are fairly compensated for their work. It's the civic-minded thing to do.

     Anyways, we're disappointed that we had to cancel our very first gig in Baltimore, but ultimately we think we made the right decision. Hopefully we'll be able to make it down there soon. Until then, Sarah Palin is a cow.

Love,

Dave Tat