China's first hotel and restaurant background music infringement case tried

It was learnt from Music Copyright Society of China (MCSC) that, Hangzhou Municipal Intermediate People's Court has recently accepted first case of this country involving the unauthorized use of background music in hotel and restaurant.

In its bill of complaint, MCSC (the plaintiff) claimed that Hangzhou Hyatt Regency Hotel and Hangzhou 900bowls Restaurant (the defendants) have used music works under the management of MCSC as their background music for a long time, without the grant of MCSC and never paying any copyright usage fee.

So the plaintiff asked for the defendants to stop playing those unauthorized music and compensate 35,000 yuan respectively.

An official from Hangzhou branch of MCSC told the reporter, "we have tried to negotiate with the two law breakers, but they turned a deaf ear to this event. So we have to use legal tool to defend the right of copyright holders. Meanwhile, we wish to teach other hotel and restaurant operators the importance of safeguarding copyright via this case."

In recent years, MCSC has signed paid use grant agreement with some hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, airline companies, etc.. So far, nearly ten thousand commercial spaces have contracted with MCSC. [Chinese version is available on Legal Daily]