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Old Feb 16, 2019, 09:51 AM
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Jazz Paladin Jazz Paladin is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Deciding whether to do Secret of Mana or Wild Arms for my next album
Posts: 131
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kentaro Sato View Post
To Jazz Paladin

In your case, have CD Baby asked if you have licenses cleared? If no, then I assume they assume you've done so when you enter into their term of service.

But in any case, Amazon or CD Baby are not liable for any copyright infringement, because they are not the one who are record producers (one to reproduce copies in a record form) nor one to "distribute" the copy (they do it on behalf of you).
The copyright/licensing responsibility always stays at the record producers.

The platform might have some agreement between PROs around the world to make record producers' work easier like YouTube. But you are still liable for licensing of any works which are not coverd by PROs, and any "arrangements" if copyright law in your jurisdiction doesn't provide such examption.


Sure, platforms can be respnsible for infringement--Spotify has already gotten in loads of trouble for deliberately withholding royalties through a conveniently mismanaged system.

Regarding licensing, here is the thing. Licensing agencies are advertising "Worldwide" licensing for cover distribution. It is pretty common if you look around. If people are obtaining licenses through such agencies, one could only assume that once the compulsory mechanical license(for the US side of things) is obtained , proper proceedings are then dealt with the appropriate PRO's for the "Worldwide" components. Otherwise, this would be false advertising. Cursory research of some of these licensing agencies does seem to indicate that at least on some level, PRO's are contacted as a part of this process. The exact process for supposedly ensuring this "worldwide" licensing is never really explicitly detailed on any of the sites I have seen though.

While I have never used CDbabys licensing directly, they too, are as a part of their "distribution plan" offering licenses for "Worldwide cover distribtution". If you were a consumer doing research similar to MMmike, would you assume that this would cover licensing for all avenues of distribution they provide to? If it were the case that they subsequently distributed to someplace they shouldn't have while they were the ones giving out the licenses, sure they could be liable...


There are all sorts of things they could be responsible for. A habit of improperly encoding metadata for example. Or improper distribution. For example, a few years ago I released an album, but only wanted to pay for some of the songs for digital release. I emailed them the licenses I had. I showed and told them that I only wanted digital downloads for SOME of the songs. They went ahead and released just the songs I wanted on their own platform, but I later noticed the songs I wanted omitted available elsewhere. I requested these songs be pulled a few years ago, but they are still circulating.

I don't know what the laws are like in Japan, but if someone else mismanages data like that and I have a clear record of communication / purchases showing that it was never my intention to distribute a product, sure, they can be held liable here.

Please don't think I am trying to pick a fight with you or anything. Trust me, I want to ensure that all composers get what they are entitled to. But the way that the internet has brought about such rapid change has ensured a lot of confusion and mismanagement that can make it more difficult to determine how to best approach to handle the scope of proper royalty payment,
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Last edited by Jazz Paladin; Feb 16, 2019 at 11:11 AM.
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