As complicated and imperfect music copyright laws can be here in the US, sometimes they pale in comparison to the difficulties other countries face. For example, the Bangkok Post published a fascinating investigative piece on the issue that many restaurant owners have come across- punishment for playing songs without a license in their places of business. Inter Music Company Co (IMC) owns the rights to almost all of the international songs that one might want to access in Thailand, and law states that 
people must purchase a license in order to legally play those songs in a business, a fee of around $600 US dollars. However, the article centers around the “dirty” practices this copyright law is encouraging, particularly local police officers forcing restaurant owners to pay outrageous fines of more than triple the fee, without issuing any proof of infraction. The Thai Department of Intellectual Property has a list of guidelines people should follow to be safe, so feel free to take a look in the full article.
Check out the article here: Facing the music on dirty copyright deeds
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