Are stereos in rented cars violate copyrights?

Car rental is a phenomenon common to many countries, it is a business that is set to flow. The Swedish organization STIM , which deals with the protection of copyrights, believes that the stereosystems in rental cars violate copyrights, provided that music is played by such a system. According to company representatives, the car rental business should deduct money for the right to play music in a rented car.

Now STIM is trying to prove its point of view in a lawsuit with Fleetmanager, which is engaged in car rental in Sweden (STIM is also a Swedish organization).
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According to representatives of STIM, license fees to the copyright holder should be paid in any case, regardless of where and how the copyright work is reproduced. For example, for playing music in a rental car, with the help of a CD player or even a stereo FM, a company that rents cars should pay. In this case, it is Fleetmanager.

STIM believes that since there are people in the car, it means that the music is played in a “public place”, let only one representative of the society sit in the car. Accordingly, it is necessary to pay for playing music in a public place.

Representatives of Fleetmanager strongly disagree with this statement, considering that there are a limited number of people in the car, and it is impossible to consider the car as a public place, on a par with a restaurant or cafe.

It seems that the dispute will continue for a long time, and it is not yet known what the court decision will be. However, all other Swedish car rental companies have agreed to pay STIM license fees. And this, according to the organization, is another argument in favor of the fact that the owners of Fleetmanager should also pay.

By the way, this is not the first such case. Back in July of this year, the association of AARC holders sued Ford and GM, arguing that companies must pay license fees for the availability of CD systems with the ability to rip music. In November last year, a similar lawsuit was filed against Chrysler and Mitsubishi.