As some of you might’ve heard, ASCAP (the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) want royalties on songs used as ringtones – each time the phone is ringing, effectively bringing entertainment industry representatives (ASCAP, RIAA, MPAA, etc) to a new level of stupid.

They are claiming that each time a phone rings with a certain ringtone, it’s an unauthorized performance of music (especially if there are people around to listen to it), and thus will require royalty payments for every time the phone rings with that ringtone. And that’s even when content providers pays royalties for selling ringtones to us consumers.

First of all, how would your carrier know what ringtone you have set? You might’ve changed your ringtone to one of a selection of songs already downloaded to your phone, or even used one provided by your phone manufacturer.

And second, what’s next? Royalties for each time you sing along with a song, or hums a tune? Or if there’s a song stuck in your head? I mean, come on!