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Legal
Convicted dodgy jukebox operators ordered to pay up
By CMU Editorial | Published on Friday 24 February 2012
Record label trade body BPI and recording rights collecting society PPL have both welcomed a recent court ruling that will see two men who ran a dodgy jukebox business in the North East pay over £131,000 in compensation.
As previously reported, last July Malcolm Wylie, his son Peter Wylie (not the Mighty Wah frontman) and William Ross were all handed custodial sentences for their involvement in the jukebox enterprise, which provided supposedly fully licensed jukeboxes to North East businesses, but then pocketed all the income without paying any money over to the rights owners via PPL. Since then Ross has been ordered to pay £102,000 to BPI/PPL, and earlier this month Wylie Senior and Junior were together ordered to hand over £131,000.
Welcoming the most recent court rulings in this case, BPI Director of Anti Piracy, David Wood, told reporters: “The outcome of [this latest] hearing is recompense for artists who have been deprived of a fair return for their work. The illegal activity has not only harmed the music industry but also those landlords who, in difficult economic times, believed they were paying for a legitimate service when in fact they were being exploited. We would like to thank PPL for their partnership in bringing this case to a successful outcome”.
PPL’s Head of Dubbing and Tariff Development Richard Stewart added: “This is a great result for both the BPI and PPL. We have worked tirelessly over the past four years to secure justice for our members in regards to the case of Wylie, Wylie and Ross. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with the BPI and we will actively pursue any illegal businesses that deprive our members of their rightful revenues or harm the wider music industry”.
