After spending an hour on hold this morning listening to an ’80′s loop with a heavy dose of Michael Jackson, I was curious to see what was out there on musical torture.  Turns out the armed forces were way ahead of me and have been using annoying music, in particular Barney’s I Love You (an inspired choice) since 2003 to get prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan to talk.  It speaks to the high annoyance factor that you don’t even have to translate the words for this to be effective.   So is this now considered a violation of human rights? Apparently some lawyers think so. I would think if it is then parents or innocent adult bystanders could  sue their children or local TV/radio stations.  I certainly have never voluntarily listened to Barney. Apparently some musicians were understandably affronted while others were more concerned with getting royalties paid which raises the question of whether enforced listening is a public performance or not. It’s good to know that the lawyers are watching out for the record labels’ interest – I wonder if in addition to paying the play fee they’ll try and force the Army to give public service announcements in between play lists?