I used to play every week at a restaurant here in Seattle that refused to pay the ASCAP/BMI fees. The owner made us swear that we would never play anything except traditional material. Back in those days we played a lot of Steeleye Span music, and from time to time an auditor would come in, act like an audience member, and start requesting all the original, copyrighted Steeleye Span songs. Fortunately, the owner had been dealing with these people for so many years that he was usually able to warn us when a spy showed up.

Here's an amazing concept: we live in a world of huge computers and worldwide databases. How hard would it be to get every venue and every radio station to go online and enter song lists that were played? That way, the small-time composers like me would actually get paid something every time one of our songs gets played, and the fees to the venue could be based on actual use of copyrighted material. This whole nonsense about basing the fees on number of seats and paying composers proportionally based on airplay at pop radio stations could go away.