Does the government owe royalties on torture music?

A conversation I had about this at work this morning got me wondering. I shoulda known Wired would have been on to this months ago:

Insult, meet injury: Now there is talk that the US government may owe royalties on the song that has been blared over and over and over again to to weaken detainees’ resolve of “War on Terror” prisoners warehoused [in Guantanamo].

Most prominently US forces in Guantanamo Bay have played David Gray’s “Babylon” on heavy rotation — not that the song itself constitutes torture, of course.

Arguably, that constitutes a public performance and conceivably makes it subject to royalties owed ASCAP and BMI.

As Howard Knopf of Excess Copyright notes via techdirt: “Certain collectives are quick to collect money from those in nursing homes, hospitals, prisons etc. on the basis that these are ‘public’ places. Never mind that the audience is captive and it’s their home, like it or not.

There are a couple of problems, of course. For example, ASCAP generally relies on the user of their content or third parties they pay to monitor use — not exactly an honor system, but close. Good luck with that.

Update: In addition, a BMI spokeswoman told us the company doesn’t license military bases (whether that means music cannot be played there or that it can, but copyright holders don’t have to be compensated for it remains unclear).

Read the whole thing.