Lowhz, I think we can assume that anyone going through the hassle of fining someone will do so with a true belief that the fine will be upheld. It's true that anyone can sue anyone over anything, even without a chance in hell of it being upheld, and a corollary would be that someone from ASCAP might try to apply and enforce a fine and lose in the attempt. However, you're not answering the spirit of the question.
See, if someone fined a restaurant, the restaurant responded and got the fine lifted, then, in the end, they would not have been fined, right? The fine would have been rescinded. This takes us back to the question I originally asked but clarifies it by restating as something like
After all the dust settles in some particular instance likely to be questioned by Lowhz, could ASCAP or BMI be successful in applying a fine to someone who plays a local soft music FM station as background music in a restaurant?
Hey, just a thought: how would you phrase the question so someone else could not take a shot at seeming to answer it while totally missing the point?
