Willum, you are technically correct but few abide by the laws, even though you can get your butt fined seriously and jail time if caught. I played for years in bands and performed in New York and San Francisco and never ran into signing anything and I seriously doubt that the club owners ever paid a dime towards copyright laws. Gee, don't tell Walt Tanay this - he sells "professionally arranged songs" on eBay. Look out, Walt, you might end up in the slammer. When I put out my CD album in 1997, I had to pay Harry Fox Agency a pretty good sum of money for 13 of the 16 songs I put out. Three of the songs were written by me so there was no fee involved on them. According to copyright laws in America, you can be fined $10,000, and get 10 years in jail - not to be taken lightly. I doubt seriously that giving your CDs away constitutes any wrongdoing for there is no money involved.

Scott