Most people know you need a license to drive and to practice medicine, but only now are some local bar owners being told they need a license to play music at their establishments.

"A license for somebody to sing karaoke," chuckled Richard Filippone of the Pone Express in Mishawaka. "It's just another person asking for money out of your pocket like another tax."

Filippone has been in the bar business for 30 years and only now has he been asked to pay to play songs for his patrons.

“They have to download it, our karaoke people have to download it, and then we have to pay for them to play it here, so it’s sort of like double jeopardy there,” said Filippone.

In order to save karaoke night, Filippone did fork over the cash for an ASCAP license. "It was better to pay the annual fee than to, you know, get a lawsuit for one big amount."

In fact, two Elkhart business owners are currently being sued in federal court for copyright infringement.

BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) filed suit in September of 2010 against the Olive Or Twist, and filed another last month against the Big Easy. Both suits are still pending.

"Any business that uses recorded music or live music or karaoke has a responsibility to get a music license and cost of the license is determined by such factors as square footage, how many nights a week music is used and whether the music is recorded or live or karaoke," said Ari Sundoval, Director of Communications for BMI.

The license for the Big Easy would be about $6 per day, while the Pone Express paid about $1 per day for its ASCAP license.

“BMI represents 500,000 songwriters, when a songwriter writes a song, article 1 section 8 of the constitution gives the exclusive right to ownership to that song, you can’t use it without permission,” said Sundoval. “So when businesses use their music we collect the licensing fee and distribute that fee to our songwriters as royalties payment. According to Sundoval, 86 cents out of every dollar collected, is distributed as royalties.

Filippone was quick to ask, “For this money to go to musicians who are already millionaires, do they need that little bit?”

Sundoval replied that there are plenty of ‘little guys’ on both sides of the battle for barroom bucks. “The overwhelming majority of the 500,000 writers and publishers BMI represents are not household names, they’re not performers or stars, they don’t sell T-shirts or records, they’re writers.”

Sundoval claims that 22,000 of those writers and publishers live in Indiana. “And the royalties they receive from BMI are used to pay mortgages, and buy groceries, and gasoline, and school supplies.”