What kills it in England is the 1793 law case which says that members of the public are counted as performers. This kills any inpromptu sessions and singalongs, and regular folkie meetings wehre people meet in a pub and take it in turns to sing for their own enjoyment and no payment.

I am in complete ageement with the promlem as spelt out above but the facts need clarifying a little.

The 1793 case law is being quoted by authorities to support the claim that members of the public making their own music is public entertainment requiring the licence.

To do this they just simply ignore far more relevant and recent case law from 1899 where a licencee was found not guilty of providing public entertainment because customers were making their own.