Kwik-Fit sued over staff listening to the radio

I can’t quite believe I’ve just read this.

A car repair firm has been taken to court accused of infringing musical copyright because its employees listen to radios at work.

It seems now we are not allowed to listen to the radio at work. I don’t quite understand the case here. Surely the radio station, which is broadcast publicly under license, has paid for the rights to play the music?

I too heard about this Phil and I couldn’t believe it either.

From what I’ve heard, although I don’t know if it is correct the company must have a licence to play music in their workstation - or something like that. I think that is mad really because at the end of the day the radio is providing the music and you have no control of what’s played… Anyway, it was being discussed on a thread on the PCAdvisor forums, it might shed a bit more light on the confusion (I haven’t been too bothered to read up on it properly…).

Thanks for link Aidan, I’ll give it a scan see if I can glean anything. I’m guessing it’s because the music can be heard by members of the public and so constitutes a public performance.

edit: It does seem to be because it’s a workplace which is ridiculous, it’s a radio.