Sony and BMI are suing Chicago's famous brewery and pizza spot for playing live the acts like Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Get away", Willie Nelson's "Crazy" and Weezer's "Say It Ain't So" without paying the royalty.
Both companies are the leading organizations dealing with licensing and helping musicians and composers to deal with their copyright concerns.
Piece Brewery and Pizzeria is a popular pizza spot located in Chicago's Wicker Park. They play live karaoke every Saturday night.
As per the lawsuit of Sony and BMI that was filed on February 17, 2016, Piece's karaoke band has played all the three songs mentioned above on August 13, 2015. A representative who visited the spot that night witnessed the same, according to reports from Sun-Times.
However, this wasn't the first time the problem arose for the Piece pizzeria. BMI had tried to get in touch with the Piece and its owner, Bill Jacob, nearly 70 times from May 2014.
BMI wanted them to sign up to use the rights to play the songs in their live concert. The license will usually cost $300, according to The Daily Meal.
It may cost more depending on the businesses they are signing up for, the duration or how often they will be playing the song and the format in which they are going to play the songs. They have also sent Cease and Desist letters to the pizzeria.
The spokesman of BMI said that they were left with no options other than the lawsuit after their failed attempt to contact the owner of the pizzeria, Bill Jacob.
The lawsuit will be more of an attempt to get the money they owe to the royalty agencies rather than crippling money through the lawsuit.
Sony and BMI are expecting Piece to be barred from the use of songs without Royalty in the Future.
