Thursday, February 04, 2010

Blue Collar Man of the People Sues Bar for Copyright Infringement

I can't be the only one who's sick of this guy's self-righteous, blue-collar phoniness. He's a guy living in a mansion hosting fundraisers for fatcat Democrats but after all these years he still likes to pretend he a man of the people. Then he pulls some petty nonsense like this.
Bruce Springsteen is showing a midtown bar who's The Boss.

The rocker slapped Connolly's Pub & Restaurant on W. 45th St. with a copyright infringement lawsuit Wednesday.

He claims the bar hosted a band on Aug. 9, 2008, that performed three of Springsteen's hits - and charged customers a cover fee.

Venues that host live performances are supposed to pay an annual licensing fee to the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, which doles out royalties.

Springsteen had no comment, but ASCAP officials said the point of the action was to protect all songwriters.

"It's not about him as a recording artist," said Vincent Candilora, ASCAP senior vice president for licensing. "In this instance, he's simply a songwriter with rights."
Good grief, people, it's three songs in some little bar. Is this really infringing on your rights when you're filthy rich? I suspect 40 years ago when he was up and coming he played more than a few covers at bars and wasn't paying royalties. What's next, going after garage bands for playing your songs at a keg party where where everyone ponied up a couple bucks for the beer?
"It's absurd for him [Springsteen] to go after a little pub when he's selling records and making dough," Cumia said.

"Bruce doesn't need the $8 a month that he'd get from this band playing at Connolly's."

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