Re: CCC Rights Question

On Wed, 14 Apr 1999, Mike Bradley <mbradley[_at_]techpubs.com> wrote:
>
> That's straightforward enough, but what are the responsibilities of
> a rights holder who is the only one to register a work? If s/he
> registers the work and collects royalties, is s/he responsible for
> contacting all other rights holders and distributing royalties to
> them, or can s/he view the royalties as being for use of her rights
> alone?
>
> Say the work is an illustrated article and the registrant is the
> writer who only claims rights to the text. Would the royalties
> s/he collects be for text alone? Or is the writer responsible for
> distributing a share of the royalties to the photographer, for photo
> rights, the publisher, for layout rights, and every other possible
> rights holder?

to determine what royalty percentage you are collecting from income derived from a joint work, you can:

1. examine your royalty statements for any indication of ownership percentage (on which payments were based)
2. ask the licensee (payor) directly

if you are the rightful owner of 50% of the work and determine that you are being [incorrectly] paid 100% -- in all fairness to your creative collaborator -- you should do one of the following in a timely manner:

1. return the overpaid amount to the payor (with instructions to adjust their records accordingly), or
2. forward the overpaid amount to the proper recipient (the owner of the other 50% of the joint work)

if you don't, you may run the risk be sued...a frequent occurrence in the music business.

derric

Derric G. Oliver
<derric[_at_]mill.net> Received on Thu Apr 15 1999 - 17:45:45 GMT