Quote:
Originally Posted by banjar
I agree that asking for money is clearly solicitation. I dont get to see a lot of buskers where I live. Of those I have seen, none asked for money, but all accepted it. I dont know how representative this of the general busking population, but my point was simply that a person has to ask for money in order for solicitation to occur. Playing music with a tip jar isnt asking for money. It is hoping for money.  |
Boy, oh boy are you putting a fine point on this. By your logic, a waiter who brings your check out on a tray, and the check has a line marked "Gratuity," is also merely "hoping for money."
I have over the course of 41 (!) years played and sung out on the street with youth groups and high school classes, and also busked for tips in two cities--in the year after college, when a law student and before I got my law job for my own tips, and for designated charities (and to protect the rights of my fellow licensed buskers) at the CTA terminal in between being laid off from my government law job and getting club gigs once I got pregnant. So much for the statement that a lawyer couldn't possibly busk. When I went out and busked with fellow musicians who had just gotten their licenses and the police ordered us to stop because they said it was illegal, I pulled out my license and my copy of the newly-enacted ordinance; and we were allowed to continue. But if we had been accused of obstructing foot traffic, playing excessively loudly to the point of complaints, or accosting passerby and cajoling them for tips, then the officers would have been justified in asking us to move along, licensed or not.