Broadcast Music, Inc. v. McDade & Sons, Inc., 928 F.Supp.2d 1120 (2013), United States District Court for Arizona

Nortons Country Corner (Nortons) is a cowboy bar located in Queen Creek, Arizona. The bar is owned by McDade & Sons, Inc., which is solely owned by Nancy McDade. Live bands play country-and-western music at Nortons on various nights of the week. Certain copyright owners of music have authorized Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), to license the use of their copyright songs to broadcasters and to owners of concert halls, restaurants, and nightclubs for live performances of the copyrighted music. BMI attends public performances of music to determine whether any copyrights it is authorized to license are being performed without the license.

One night, a BMI representative attended a live band performance at Nortons bar and recorded the songs played by the band that night. The audio recording showed that 13 copyrighted songs that BMI was authorized to license were played by the band at Nortons without the required license. The songs included classics originally sung by famous artists, such as All My Exs Live in Texas (George Strait), Baby Dont Get Hooked on Me (Mac Brown), Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison), and Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash). BMI sued McDade & Sons, Inc., and Nancy McDade in U.S. District Court for copyright infringement. The defendants argued they had not committed copyright infringement and that copyright law did not apply to owners of small establishments.

Answer the following questions in complete sentences:

1. Who is the plaintiff and who is the defendant in this case?
2. What arguments does the plaintiff have in support of its copyright infringement claim?
3. What arguments does the defendant have in support of their claim that they did not infringe on BMIs copyright?
4. Do you think the defendants are liable for copyright infringement? Why or why not?