## Facts

- Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) and multiple music publishers owned or administered public performance rights in 88 copyrighted musical compositions.
- Claire’s Boutiques, Inc. operated a nationwide chain of small retail stores (hundreds of locations) and played radio broadcasts in most stores during business hours.
- Each store used a small, home-type stereo receiver (low-power amplifier), an indoor antenna, two speakers, and connecting wire to play radio programming in the store.
- BMI sought a blanket public performance license for the entire chain; Claire’s offered to license only larger stores, asserting the rest were exempt under 17 U.S.C. § 110(5). Negotiations failed.
- BMI sued for copyright infringement based on unlicensed public performances via in-store radio broadcasts.
- The district court granted summary judgment to Claire’s under the § 110(5) “single receiving apparatus” exemption; BMI appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether a retail chain may invoke the 17 U.S.C. § 110(5) exemption when each store plays radio broadcasts through a single home-type receiver and speakers without a performance license.
2. Whether a business “further transmits” a broadcast to the public, within the meaning of § 110(5), by routing a received radio signal through speakers within the same premises.
3. Whether corporate size or the number of outlets can disqualify an otherwise qualifying in-store reception system from § 110(5).

## Decision

- The Seventh Circuit affirmed summary judgment for Claire’s.
- The court held the § 110(5) exemption applied because each store used a single receiving apparatus of a kind commonly used in private homes.
- The court found no direct charge was imposed on customers to hear the broadcasts.
- The court rejected BMI’s argument that playing the received broadcast through in-store speakers constituted a prohibited “further transmission.”
- The court declined to read into § 110(5) a limitation based on the user’s financial size or multi-store corporate structure.

## Legal Principles

- Section 110(5) exempts from the public performance right the public reception of a broadcast on a single receiving apparatus commonly used in private homes, unless a direct charge is made or the received transmission is further transmitted to the public.
- The exemption analysis focuses on the equipment and manner of reception at each location, not the aggregate size or revenue of a chain operating multiple independent locations.
- Using typical home-stereo components (receiver, antenna, speakers) to play a radio broadcast within the same premises does not, by itself, amount to a prohibited “further transmission” under § 110(5).
- Courts will not add extra-textual limits to § 110(5) based on policy concerns when the statutory criteria are otherwise satisfied.

## Conclusion

The court held that Claire’s non-licensed in-store playing of radio broadcasts fell within the § 110(5) “single receiving apparatus” exemption because each store used home-type equipment, imposed no direct listening charge, and did not further transmit the received signal beyond ordinary in-premises playback; a chain’s overall size did not defeat the exemption.


Broadcast Music, Inc. v. Claire's Boutiques, Inc., 949 F.2d 1482 (7th Cir. 1991)