Cleveland copyright cops commit copyright crime

Oh so it's all right for the police to pick and choose which laws they want to respect, but if some small backstreet garage run by a father and son want to put on a bit of Steve Wright in the Afternoon to help make their humanitarian situation that bit better, you can be sure the PRS along with a police helicopter and fearsome dogs will be down on that garage quicker than you can say "right then sunshine, you're f***ing nicked".

Come on, if only 11 out of 43 police stations bother with these Oliver Cromwell licences then why should the public?

Stop terrorising us!

The money is "better committed to crime fighting"?

So this guy helped tear apart Oink, helped jail their sysadmins, and now claims that evasion of royalties isn't a crime worth fighting?

Can we stop pretending this hypocrisy and lunacy is a solely American trait now?

now that's a cleaveland steamer if ever I saw one :-)

“We continue to assess the position and are seeking advice to determine if we are required by law to spend a significant amount of public money, which we consider is better committed to crime fighting, in this way.”

So just because there are laws for us all, it doesn't mean that they should apply to the Police too? 

Or are they going to just do the usual then and ban all music on their property so that they don't have to pay out?

De do do do, de da da da
Is all we want to say to you

Whose to foot The Bill?
Inspector the Knack heard the whole rap...

The songs they're wrong
The bread has gone
Songs everyone's heard
Let us hear it, make us a part

Policemen put on uniform
They'd like to have a tune just to keep them warm
Because violence here is a social norm
They've got to hum an tries theyself
Humming like a dynamo 
See it on the video
Walk the streets for money
We don't care if it's wrong or if it's right
Told us once They won't tell us again it's a bad way

It's a subject we rarely mention
But when we do we have this little invention

L.P. records and they're all scratched
Same tape we've had for years
Turn on the radio, the static hurts our ears
Turn on the stereo, it's played for years and years
Make records on our own, can't go out in the rain
Pick up the telephone, we've listened here for years 
Don't be one to talk to us, we've listened here for years
It makes us think
Perhaps we need a drink
I.Q. is no problem here
We fear
We need that beer

Strong words in the staff room
The accusations fly

With words they try to jail you

Where does the answer lie

If it's something we can't buy

They're only cheques left unsigned
From the banks of chaos in mind
no-one's jamming their transmission

Don't want to spend the rest of life
Looking at the barrel of a baton
they would kill us for a cigarette 
First to fall over when the atmosphere is less than perfect
Sensibilities are shaken by the slightest defect
Get so dizzy even walking in a straight line

When the world is running down
You make the best of what's still around 
You've got me hopping - really got me singing a song
You've got me bopping

Caught between the Scylla and Charybdis
In Europe and America there's a growing feeling of hysteria

All the singers chatter
While the drums just clatter

It's a big enough umbrella
But it's always us that ends up getting wet
And if you see us on the corner
We're just dancing in the rain

We don't want to bring a sour note
Remember this before we vote
We can all sink or we all float
'Cos we're all in the same big boat

Oh, oh, oh
Truth hits everybody
How my poor heart aches 
OMG how you take the biscuit

Nothing to see here... Move along.

The response from the police is appalling. First they nail people behind a site that allowed other people to share music without paying, then they say "we have better things to spend our money on than artists". The hypocrisy is so sharp and clear it's difficult to come up with something better than their own response.

So long as you donate to a local policing agency, you can download all the music you want. The money's going to a better cause.

Only the UK would be stupid enough to allow this situation to happen. Paying a fee to have a radio turned up in a canteen is completley retarded.

"..if we are required by law to spend a significant amount of public money, which we consider is better committed to crime fighting, in this way"

If the excuse works for the police .. can it work for me ?

Paying off my home loan seems a better use of my money than wasting it on a large CD collection when I can copy/download what I want for free.