4.1 Terms and Definitions

For the purposes of this standard, the following terms should be read as having the meanings specified here:

Contractually Mandatory

An entity in a DDEX message that has the technical cardinality of 0-1 or 0-n but that is mandatory when a DDEX message is sent in a specific commercial context.

Contractually Mandatory fields may, however, be mandatory when a DDEX message is sent in a specific commercial context. In such circumstances, a message is deemed conformant only if and when it contains all the “contractually mandatory” fields as agreed by Message Sender and Message Recipient.

Message Recipient

A party that receives a message formatted in accordance with a DDEX standard from a Message Sender. The Message Recipient may also be one or more of a Licensor, a Licensee, a Rights Controller, a Rights Administrator, a Licensing Agent or a Rights Holder.

Message Sender

A party that sends a message formatted in accordance with a DDEX standard to a Message Recipient. The Message Sender may also be one or more of a Licensor, a Licensee, a Rights Controller, a Rights Administrator, a Licensing Agent or a Rights Holder.

Music Licensing Company

A company that is duly authorised to issue licences for the use of Sound Recordings and Music Videos. Music Licensing Companies may issue licences on behalf of record companies, performers or both.

Product

A Manifestation of a Release (or another Resource) which is made available to consumers, by sale, loan or other means. The attributes of a Release in its digital manifestation as a Product may be technical (e.g., the codec or bit rate), a mode of distribution (e.g., downloading or streaming), or a commercial term (e.g., price).

Release

A Release is an abstract entity representing a bundle of one or more Resources compiled by an Issuer. The Resources in Releases are normally primarily Sound Recordings or music audio-visual recordings, but this is not invariably the case. The Release is not itself the item of trade (or “Product”). Products have more extensive attributes than Releases. One Release may be disseminated in many different Products.

Release Creator

Release Creator is an organisation which is the owner of copyrights in Sound Recordings and/or music audiovisual recordings and/or exclusive licensees of copyrights in Sound Recordings and/or music audiovisual recordings.

Resource

A digital fixation of an expression of an abstract Work (such as a Sound Recording, a Music Video, an image, software or a passage of text). Resources are individual assets that make up a Release. Typical Resources are Sound Recordings, video clips and cover art images.

Rights Controller

A Party that controls rights in one or more Creations in respect of some or all rights for specific territories, time periods, Rights Types, Usage Types and Commercial Model Types (which may be anything up to and including all rights for the world, in perpetuity, for all types of Usage and for all types of Commercial Models). Creations include Musical Works, Sound Recordings and other Resources as well as Releases.

A Rights Controller is in many cases also the Licensor.

A Rights Controller may be a human being or other legal person or corporate entity.

A Rights Controller may or may not also be the Rights Administrator, the Licensing Agent or the Rights Holder.

A Rights Controller may or may not be the Message Sender or Message Recipient of a message in a specific information exchange defined by a DDEX Standard.