Beale on Broadway(701 S. Broadway) was slapped with a federal lawsuit this week by Broadcast Music Incorporated, or BMI, for allowing artists to perform copyrighted cover songs in the venue.
In a suit filed on Tuesday, the performing rights organization, which licenses more than 12 million copyrighted compositions on behalf of composers, songwriters and publishing companies, alleges that the blues bar willfully infringed on the copyrights of five songs in BMI's repertoire by allowing them to be performed in the venue without purchasing a license.
The offenses allegedly happened on November 5, 2016, and on January 20 and 21 of this year. Five specific songs are cited in the lawsuit:
-"Busted" by songwriter Harlan Howard, written in 1962 and made famous by Johnny Cash and Ray Charles, separately, in 1963
-"Papa Was a Rolling Stone" by songwriters Norman Whitfield and Barrett Strong, written in 1971 and made famous by the Temptations in 1973
-"Express Yourself" by songwriter Charles Wright, written and performed in 1970 by Charles Wright & the Watts 103rd Street Rhythm Band
-"Mess Around" by Atlantic Records president and founder Ahmet Ertegün, written in 1953 and made famous by Ray Charles
-"Strokin'" written and performed by Clarence Carter in 1985
BMI claims in the suit to have reached out to the venue more than 60 times since April 2014 via phone, mail and email, including by sending cease-and-desist notices.
BMI is one of of three major performing rights organizations, or PROs, whose primary function is to collect license fees on the behalf of its clients, which are then distributed as royalties to the owners of the songs.…