Té wants to fully support local artists.  Part of this support includes respect for copyright laws.  One aspect of copyright laws in the U.S. is the concept of "public performance" of works for profit.  If someone uses a copyrighted song in a profit-making movie, other work, or as part of their pay-for-performance, they need to get the permission of the copyright holder, and perhaps pay license fees.

We stress this covers only performances where someone is profiting from the copyrighted work: you're free to sing in your bathtub all you want, and you can play music among your friends without fear of reprisal.  But where the law has gotten a bit screwy (in our opinion) is when copyrighted songs are played as background music in a small restaurant or pub, or when a customer plays a cover song while in the store.  Yes, these are considered "for profit" situations too, as they purportedly enhance the environment of the store, and hence it's money-making potential.

(The law even calls for stores to pay licensing fees for playing the radio or TV at their establishment.  However, in a momentary lapse of sanity, Congress did pass the Fairness in Music Licensing Act of 1998, which did give exemptions to small restaurants and stores.  As we're very small, we're okay to play the radio!)

OK, that's the law.  Respect is called for.   So, we have implemented the following policies for our tea shop, which covers the playing of our own music, as well as what customers may play during Open Mic and parties.

Music Policy

• Employees may not play their own CDs on the store radio.  Only broadcast music or music that Té sells shall be played on our radio;
  
• Open Mic patrons and party DJs should play their own, original music only, except under the following conditions:
• the song is no longer copyrighted (the copyright expired)
• the song is in the public domain
  
• the song was released under a Creative Commons license, permitting public performances
  
• you have permission to publicly perform the song (you'll have to show us the license agreement!)