SHORT TAKES : HBO Sued to Block Use of Songs

BMI, the national performing rights organization, has filed suit against Home Box Office Inc. to obtain a preliminary injunction to prevent the company from using BMI repertoire on the Home Box Office channel after Monday. The suit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court, names 19 songs from the BMI repertoire contained in movies announced in HBO’s January program schedule as representative of much more extensive, ongoing use of BMI music by the national pay TV channel.

The songs include “Helter Skelter” by John Lennon and Paul McCartney and “Sympathy for the Devil” by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, both used in the film “U2 Rattle and Hum”; “Strangers in the Night” by Bert Kaempfert, Charles Singleton and Eddie Snyder, used in the film “Fright Night”; “Rocky Top” by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, used in the film “Six Pack,” and “Loco-Motion” by Carole King and Gerry Goffin, used in the film “Arthur Two--On the Rocks.”

BMI’s current license agreement with HBO expires Sunday.

“Our negotiations with HBO have failed to produce an agreement for a music license for the HBO channel,” said Edward W. Chapin, BMI vice president and general counsel, “and we were left no alternative but to ask the court for an injunction to prevent HBO’s use of the property of our songwriters, composers and publishers without compensation.”