You will be aware of the recent copyright infringement claim against Believe in connection with content distributed by Believe’s affiliate, TuneCore. You can read more about that complaint here.
This note sets out details of a one-off due diligence exercise undertaken by The Source with respect to your Delivered Repertoire under your agreement with The Source.
ACTION REQUIRED:
As the result of that exercise, The Source is asking you to review all recordings and accompanying metadata you have delivered under our agreement(s).
The Source Due Diligence Exercise
As a one-off due diligence exercise and in order to take a limited snapshot across all repertoire delivered under The Source agreements, we’ve done an additional review on the the data reported by various DSPs with respect to delivered repertoire against a list of artists and tracks that include artists listed in the complaint against Believe. The Source also specifically looked for track titles that contain words such as ‘sped’, ‘speed’, ‘slow’, or ‘nightcore,’ as tracks with these types of names appear to be a focus of the complaint.
This is not intended to be an exhaustive analysis of your content and this exercise should not in any way be seen as an alternative to you having in place sufficient processes and controls to ensure your compliance with the our agreement.
Provider Review and Report to The Source under Clause 8 of the The Source Digital Distribution Agreement
As you know, under your Digital Distribution Agreement, you provide representations and warranties to The Source that the content you deliver does not infringe any third-party rights. We draw your attention to clause 8.2(a) of the The Source Digital Distribution Agreement in particular. These representations are fundamental to the basis on which The Source operates.
Further to our current QC, all future deliveries will be scanned against a list of known key-words and artist names. In case your release or track match this list the delivery will be put on hold and the metadata and assets will be reviewed. If we need additional information from you our legal team will reach out to you.
Please be aware that The Source applies a zero tolerance policy in regards to any and all forms of fraudulent activity and copyright infringement. We draw your attention to clause 8.5 and 9 of the The Source Digital Distribution Agreement in particular.
The Source hereby reserves all rights and remedies available to it, under the digital distribution Agreement or otherwise. Nothing in this mail limits The Source’s right to indemnification under clause 8.2(i) of your Digital Distribution Agreement (or any other of The Source’s rights or remedies whether under the The Source Distribution Agreement or otherwise).