Spooky Songs Done Wrong: Copyright Consequences For Unlicensed Haunted Houses

It's that time of year: costumes and candy, haunted houses and hayrides. And all those tricks and treats add up to a $7.4 billion commercial industry around the holiday, a figure that exceeds the annual revenue of the domestic recording industry. One sector, haunted theme attractions, has seen particular growth in recent years to the tune of over $300 million. Now, there are all sorts of haunted houses – from local nonprofit fundraisers that decorate some vacant office space with cheesy drugstore garb and a couple strobe lights, to multi-million-dollar operations that promise to (and do) terrify for $30 or more per ticket. The scale and content of any of these attractions determines the extent to which legal counsel and / or a specialized consultant is required for the venture, but all of these so-called "haunts" will encounter issues related to liability insurance, labor laws, and local building and fire codes.