4.1 Terms and definitions

For the purposes of this part of the RDR standard the following terms have the definitions specified in this clause.

Although all the terms below are capitalised, they appear in the text of this part of the RDR standard in lower case, for ease of readability. This does not apply to the terms Cell, Primary Delimiter, Record, Record Delimiter and Secondary Delimiter because these terms are specialised for the purpose of this standard.

Cell

An individual data element in a Record. Cells are separated by Primary Delimiters.

Claiming Party

A party, that is a rights controller in sound recordings and/or music videos, whose rights claims are sent to a music licensing company, either directly or via a third party facilitator. Claiming parties who have rights claims that are in conflict with each other are conflicting parties until the conflict is resolved, even if they maintain their claim.

Conflicting Party

A claiming party who has made a rights claim that is considered by a music licensing company to be in conflict with the rights claim of one or more rights controllers in sound recordings and/or music videos, which themselves in this context are consequently known as a conflicting party. As a result of such a conflict, all conflicting parties are therefore involved in a communication about the conflict, typically in accordance with this standard.

Delimiter

A character that delineates in a message created in accordance with this standard either one Record from another Record (Record Delimiter), one Cell from another Cell (Primary Delimiter) or one data element from another data element within a Cell (Secondary Delimiter).

Message Recipient

A party that receives a message created in accordance with this part of the RDR standard from a message sender.

Message Sender

A party that sends a message created in accordance with this part of the RDR standard to a message recipient.

Music Licensing Company

A company that is duly authorised to issue licences for the use of sound recordings and/or music videos, and/or audio-visual resources containing music. Music licensing companies may issue licences on behalf of record companies, performers or both. DDEX avoids using the abbreviation “MLC” as it is easily confused with the abbreviations for the Mechanical Licensing Collective established by US law.

Primary Delimiter

A delimiter used to separate Cells.

Record

A collection of Cells that describe a particular creation (such as a musical work or release) or event (such as a sales and/or usage transaction). Records are separated by Record Delimiters and are identified by a four-character Record type identifier (e.g. HEAD, FOOT, CHEA). The Record type identifier may carry a version number (e.g. CHEA.01).

Record Delimiter

A delimiter used to separate Records.

Release

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 videos, 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. For example, one release may be disseminated in many different products.

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, music videos 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 may be a human being or other legal person or corporate entity.

For the purpose of this standard the Rights Controller only deals with creations and the rights thereof related to sound recordings and/or music videos, and/or audio-visual resources containing music.

Secondary Delimiter

A delimiter used to separate data elements within a single Cell.

Third Party Facilitator

A party that has been contracted to work on behalf of a recording rights controller. The third party facilitator in this context can be the message sender and/or message recipient working as an agent on behalf of the claiming party.