Right after winning the Gold Medal this skater receives legal backlash for not paying royalties for the song she skated too in the event. Evidently a similar thing also happened in the 2022 Olympics, a skater got in trouble for skating to a performance of "House of the Rising Sun", to which she complained it wasn't even their song, it was just a cover (the song itself is public domain)
US skater Amber Glenn faces fallout over politics and issues with music copyright after Olympic gold
https://apnews.com/article/milan-cortina-olympics-figure-skating-copyright-0d46df364ff67d430b394e40089926f0
MILAN (AP) — On the same day Amber Glenn won Olympic gold ... the American figure skater ended up with another headache.
Canadian artist Seb McKinnon, who produces music under the name CLANN, took to social media late Sunday to object to the use of his song “The Return,” which Glenn had used in her free skate — and has been using for the past two years without issue.
“So just found out an Olympic figure skater used one of my songs without permission for their routine. It aired all over the world ... what? Is that usual practice for the Olympics?” McKinnon posted to X, shortly after the team competition had ended. ..
... Copyrights never used to be a problem in figure skating because the International Skating Union barred any music involving vocals, and most classical music is considered public domain. But when those rules were relaxed in 2014, and modern music began to be used, artists soon demanded that they receive compensation for their work.
.... It all came to a head at the 2022 Beijing Olympics, when one of the indie artists who covered “House of the Rising Sun” objected to its use ...
“It’s never been an issue and then suddenly it is, and I don’t understand why,” Glenn told the AP ahead of the Winter Games. “I understand there was a big upset at the last Olympics because some artist — I’m sorry, they decided to be (jerks). Like, they couldn’t just appreciate this Olympic team competing? It wasn’t even their song to begin with; it was a cover.
..After Nathan Chen won gold at the Beijing Games with a free skate set to “Rocket Man,” Elton John effusively praised the American for his performance...
I don't know if any agree with me but this copyright thing is getting a bit too crazy. A skater can't use a song to skate to? Come on, what is this coming to? Who ever heard of this? Someone on youtube wants to do a band scan on a radio or demonstrate how a speaker sounds and they can't if music is heard! This is going too far to be sensible anymore. What about stores that have music playing in malls?, or Sean Cuthbert demonstrating compressor functions using some of a song?
I agree with you that copyright has gone too far. But that always happens when money is involved. It is indeed the root of all evil. Just look at those who have a lot of it.
But music in malls? You've always had to have a copyright license for that. There have always been SOCAN agents wandering around stores, looking for those that play music, and then 'suggesting' that they get licensed (or face the consequences). You can play music from a radio, as it is presumed the licensing fees have been paid, but not play it directly from a CD player or other such device.
On Bowen Island, the stores in Artisan Square (where we were located) tended to play Artisan Radio, not only because it was local, but because they could avoid the whole copyright issue. We were licensed then to play music both over the air and in an Internet stream.