UK Grocery Store Worker Almost Fined for Singing to Self Without a Performance License

England is a complete Orwellian police state. The USA is following their lead.

Hi Eric, The incident took place in Scotland by the way, but the U.K. is not a police state. We don't have any effective law enforcement,and if we had they would and should have stamped out the little Hitlers who persecuted this lady.

Looks like commenter #1 has been watching to much V for vendetta and Fox news...

Two words: Hot Fuzz

I thought that this was only something that would happen here in America.

Bum me.

This has never happened in the USA (at least not to my knowledge which I realize isn't saying much). Besides, the rights and personal liberties in America are far greater than that of their European counterpart. It is a democratic society in most of Europe and if the majority wants you to shut up, shut down or go away, you have to whereas in the USA the majority doesn't make the rules. The list of human rights violations happening in Europe in comparison to the same violations happening in the USA is 20 to 1 but yet USA population alone is half of Europe. The big problem here isn't the countries or the rights each of their governments provide but instead this is a problem that exists in the world of copyright. If we let "them", they will patent a thought. Copyright = Thought Control = Life Control = Death

The PRS stopped us from listening to a radio at work! Chicken sh*t organisation! This shows what a set of pri*ks they really are!

@Anon: What you write makes no sense at all. First off: what do you even mean with "Europe"? Are you talking of the EU? What human rights violations are you talking about, can you name some example? Something like Guantanamo (a huge human rights violation) for instance does not exist by the hand of the EU but by the USA. The 20 to 1 remark is just guesswork or personal opinion or can you provide any reference for your claim? If you look at the yearly index for freedom of the press you will find that countless (19 to be precise) EU nations are ahead of the US (http://www.freedomhouse.org/).

I am always baffled by people like you who seem to just be buying into US propaganda of how great a nation you are instead of reading independent reports about the many flaws of your legal system, educational system, social system (healthcare anyone) financial system and so on...

This reminds me of when people had HOME VIDEOS taken off of Youtube because you could hear a radio in the background, or just because volcom decided to copyright your memories.

England is not a police state? how many cameras do London have?

I think you will find Scotland follows England and England follows America and sucks up to big brother. I know as I live in England and have been to America, England is becoming what I call Americanised. The cheesy ads are also migrating over too!

Im an American i disagree with anon who said the eu had a 20 to 1 ratio of human rights violations. however i do believe both England and the US are going closer to a orwellian style police state. this has got to change. there are so many BS laws now that have nothing to do with protecting the people they are meant to serve and at least in the US the only chance of getting them overturned is threw congress mainly because the judicial branch has not overturned a law based on it being unconstitutional sense woman's rights i believe (not sourced just last major case i can think of at 2am). which essentially means we moved closer to a democracy when that happened. the problem being is congress is more in support of business then for the people. which means at best a oligarchy. how we have fallen from the republic we once were. i will be completely honest when i say i don't fully know the state of affairs within the eu as a whole or England, but from what i could see via the internet (i don't have cable television and when i do watch the news its only for a good laugh) i don't see much more hope coming from are allys across the pond as far as from a governing standpoint.

@ all you guys yelping about communism and police states......you do realize that a brief peek at the wiki article about the Performing Right Society reveals that they are NOT PART OF ANY GOVERNMENT.

Nobody was going to be "fined" anything, since the PRS is, let me re-iterate NOT CONNECTED IN ANY WAY TO ANY GOVERNMENT.

They are like the RIAA. What they do is sue people. The RIAA, by the way, is also not anything to do with any government.

So here's another big laugh at the expense of all these guys like the first poster.

Don't get why the joke's on you? Let me break it down so it's simple enough for you slope-brows to understand:

The Performing Right Society and the RIAA are CAPITALIST constructs, meant to protect market interests. This is your mess. If you free-market jackasses don't like it, then maybe you should re-think your own philosophy.

For anyone who said that they thought this would only happen in America stop bitching, Be thankful for the fact that you live in a country where this is outrageous and not in some 3rd world country where the news is the next town over was just destroyed and everyone in that town were raped and murdered.

Um England and Scotland are ruled by the same government so that means there one country called UK and on another point you only give people as much power as you want. Don't let people like the RIAA and the PRS tell you what you can do in your own head or on your own time. I say F them

The Finger Organization on the loose. Maybe they should have given her a Guy Fawkes mask.

ZPAT420 is right. At least America is not bombing you, guys and gals; lighten up!

Annnon is also right in pointing out that private interests are being protected here. It's called a cartel, folks. Sanctified and codified by the rule of law. We're stuck with it as long as we sing their songs. Remember: happiness is not a right, it's a privilege.

In the 90's ASCAP and BMI went after companies with a radio plugged into their phone system's call waiting. They claimed that they were offering unlicensed music to paying customers or some such thing. Nevermind that the radio station was airing commercials and their own promos. After that, many of the companies went with crappy, royalty free electronic music-- computer renditions of Mozart. And don't forget when ASCAP went after the Girl Scouts for singing songs at camp. Jeesh, what freaking idiocy. Add to that the fact that these companies can't find certain musicians in which to pay them their royalties. Musicians who can be found through an online search... The whole thing ticks me off.....

Stupid Americans persist on saying this happened in England, and they wonder why people dont like them.
It is either the UK or Scotland, to contunually refer to any country in the UK as England only shows how stupid you people are.

I can't see how these idiots fail to realise that people BUY songs that they hear on the radio.