On March 11, 1972, two songs copyrighted by Twentieth Century Music Corp. were played over the radio and heard by customers in the restaurant.

While the radio station broadcasting the songs was licensed by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) to play them, Aiken's establishment was not.

The petitioners claimed that Aiken's broadcast of their songs in his establishment violated their right to publicly perform their work for profit.

A similar decision was made in earlier court cases such as Fortnightly Corp. v. United Artists in 1968 and Teleprompter Corp. v. Columbia Broadcasting in 1974.

But the ultimate aim is, by this incentive, to stimulate artistic creativity for the general public good.The ruling in Twentieth Century Music Corp. v. Aiken holds with Congress' consistent interpretation of the Copyright Act.

According to the copyright legislation passed by Congress, it takes the interests of three main parties into consideration: authors, disseminators, and users.

"[3] Aiken establishes definite favor for the public rather than private domain [4] in the interpretation of the Copyright Act of 1964 thereby contradicting a previous ruling of the Court in Buck v. Jewell-LaSalle Reality Co., 283 U.S. 191 (1931).

Section 110(5) of the Revision Act, which supposedly deals with the Aiken situation, reads as follows: When they asked whether this section would change the result in Aiken, reporters received different answers from the counsel for the Senate Subcommittee, the counsel for the House Subcommittee, and the Registrar of Copyrights, all certainly distinguished authorities on the subject.