Music

Major Step towards Better Protection of Authors' Rights in Digital Music Distribution

By granting an exclusive distribution right of its IDDN identification system to IMC, INTERDEPOSIT recognizes IMC's unique professionalism and market presence.

IMC will use the IDDN identification system to protect music editors and authors against illegal copy of music datasheet and midi files.

Frankfurt, March 4th, 1999 – INTERDEPOSIT and IMC announce today a major step towards better protection of music editors and authors against illegal copy.

Digital music, in all its forms (electronic sheet music, Midi files, and audio files), has faced an increasing number of users, due to dynamic factors such as karaoke, multimedia computers, and the Internet. However, digital technologies also create new risks for the authors. Any computer user has the ability to access, reproduce, and distribute any author's creation. The loss of control over the exploitation is compounded by the difficulty to establish the proof of an author's rights infringement after modification of the original work.

This is an increasing concern for both authors as well as for editors who wish to play a major role in digital music distribution.

In 1994, INTERDEPOSIT proposed its system for the identification of digital works, which it completed in 1996 with a system for the direct management of authors' rights. The system draws on all the resources of the computer technology and the Internet to introduce a virtual deposit of creations using a "logibox" coupled with a license that lays down the conditions of use. The user enters into a contract on the information superhighway, thereby implicitly accepting the INTERDEPOSIT Charter.

The IDDN system is under the scope of Article 12 of WIPO's (World Intellectual Property Organization) treaty on author right, adopted on the 20th of December 1996. WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization, is a specialized agency of the United Nations with headquarters in Geneva.

The electronic contract associated with the IDDN identifier provides for the settling of disputes by WIPO's Arbitration and Mediation Center, which resolves disputes arising between users and creators of digital works. The Center can condemn those who remove or alter devices for the identification and management of authors' rights.

INTERDEPOSIT is a federation established in Geneva, and offers and manages the certificates which contain the rightholders' claims and information about the referenced works. The IDDN system can be applied to the creation using standard tools available in the market, making IDDN the most open system available today. It is compatible with other standards and allows copyright management in either direct form or through third parties (publisher, literary agents or collecting societies).

IMC enjoys the distribution of the largest catalog of digital sheet music and Midi-files in the world, with over 40 000 titles available today, and more than 100 000 by year 2000.
IMC distributes today through kiosks installed in France and in most European countries.
IMC also creates and stores digital files for the major editors, and is renowned on a worldwide basis for the quality of its work.
IMC has chosen IDDN because the quality and openness of the identification system offers an unsurpassed service to authors and editors.

IMC recently secured a funding of more than USD 4 millions from Venture Capital firms to allow fast development on a Worldwide basis

Under the agreement with INTERDEPOSIT, IMC has an exclusive right to distribute the IDDN system to the 6 major music editors.

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