Rogue jukebox firm hits buffers

Bosses of a pub digital jukebox firm that distributed copyrighted tunes without permission have been prosecuted.

Gateshead-based Access All Areas, which turned over more than £3m since it was set up in 2001, never paid music licensing bodies PPL nor MCPS fees. This is despite claiming to be fully licensed and using both company trademarks on their website.

The company changed names several times and in May 2008, trading standards executed a warrant on behalf of PPL and the BPI to raid their offices.

They found evidence of copyright infringement, which over the years had totaled hundreds of thousands of pounds.

The company traded under different names including Access All Areas Entertainment, Access All Areas Production, Mixopia and Tracks Alive. It sold and rented audio/visual jukeboxes to pubs and other leisure venues.

Two of the company defendants, Malcolm Wylie and William Ross, pleaded guilty to copyright offences on 2 March. Another defendant, Peter Wylie, opted for a trial and was found guilty yesterday. Sentencing takes place at Newcastle Crown Court on 1 July.

The prosecution was mounted by PPL and BPI, which represents record labels.

"This is the first joint PPL/BPI prosecution and I am very pleased to see it come to a successful collusion with the conviction of all three defendants," said Richard Stewart, head of dubbing and tariff development at PPL.

"The defendants supplied illegal audio/video jukeboxes to the leisure industry since 2001 and in this period had a turnover of over £3 million.

"It was quite apparent from the prosecution evidence that they traded through a series of phoenix companies defrauding not only our members of many hundreds of thousands of pounds of revenue, but also deceiving scores of companies across the UK including hundreds of licensees who in good faith paid substantial sums to the fraudsters for what they were led to believe was a fully licensed system."