ASCAP Files Suit Against Frisky Frog's

[Wilhelm]

Members of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers have filed a lawsuit against their neighbors JCJ Productions, the ownership group behind Midtown bar Frisky Frog's, for copyright infringement.

The plaintiffs are five publishing companies who claim music they own was played at Frisky Frog's — which is a stone’s throw from ASCAP’s office — without proper licensing or permission. The lawsuit mentions four songs in particular played at the bar in February, according to court documents.

The songs mentioned in the lawsuit are “Fast Car” written by Tracy Chapman and owned by Purple Rabbit Music; “Lonely No More” written by Rob Thomas and owned by U Rule Music; “Tyrone” written by Erykah Badu and Norman “Keys” Hurt and owned by Divine Pimp Publishing and Key Club Music; and “Fallin’” written by Alicia Keys and owned by Lellow Productions Inc.

ASCAP licenses public performances of music owned by its members and collects fees from those performances, distributing the royalties back to the songs’ owners. The plaintiffs claim that ASCAP made more than 80 attempts to offer Frisky Frog's a license and that JCJ Productions denied the offers.