This federal court ruling goes out to all those idiots who think anyone would actually want to hear their cell phone blast the new Kid Cudi song through their shitty one-inch speaker: this week, a federal court ruled that ringtones that are played aloud in public are not an actual performance of an artist’s song, so therefore cell phone providers do not have to pay royalties on them. In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Denise Cote acknowledged the fact that the cell phone provider both has no control over when a ringtone is played and earns no money when it is played.
Oddly enough, what would seem like an obvious case was actually an argument brought to light by the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) earlier this year when it decided to sue several U.S. cell phone providers in order to force them to pay royalties whenever a “performance,” or ringtone, was played. Its argument was that the download rights that providers were already paying weren’t enough. But the court shot down ASCAP because it failed to show infringement of providers or its customers, ruling that a ringtone is not a public performance, like how a radio on the beach blasting the new Kid Cudi song is not considered one either.