I would say that actual damages can be calculated. $1 per song for a year (cost to buy a song at iTunes store), so prorated over the number of days the bar is open, times the number of people at the bar on the day in question.
So 1.00 / 312 (assumes open 6 days a week)
times 1 day
times the number of patrons (lets assume 20)
works out to about 6 and a half cents.
Heck, lets be generous and award them $1 just to cover any other possible infractions or errors in assumptions.
Having spent some time at Disney University we had some discussion about their copyright enforcement.
The way it was explained is they if they let someone go for putting Mickey Mouse’s image on a birthday cake—and it could be shown that they did nothing—they would lose the right to enforce it later. It is an all or nothing proposition.
The headline is that the little guy is being sued for $30,000. The settlement is for a lot less. In the bar situation there is usually a blanket ASCAP payment. My guess is that they were not paying at all...or had let their contract lapse.
This stuff happens all of the time.
Purchasing a song on iTunes does not grant you public performance rights.
Royalty structure for live performance of cover tunes differs from your assessment. A single iTunes purchase allows up to 5 individuals to share it privately at will. That is all.
The royalties for playing cover tunes publicly are not overly burdensome quantitatively, but they do tax patience when the letter of the law is followed; when the practical end of songwriting for a living plays out. $30,000.00 is excessive, to be sure, but this is because the venue is withholding due royalties.
BMI, ASCAP, et. al try to ascertain the nature and extent of cover tunes playing in various venues and level a fee straight up. Whether the music is publicly played through a juke box, or by a live band, as long as the venue is using the music to attract business, the songwriters have in place a mechanism to be compensated. Without question human nauture is not at its best in this matter, whether it be the proprietors or the enforcers of these fees. There is wrongdoing against the songwriter on both levels, but a few of them, who also have ways to twist arms, make a princely sum through their efforts.