CD Duplication, Intellectual Property and Copyright

In the CD duplication and CD manufacturing world, we pay a lot of attention to Intellectual Property and Copyright because we produce countless CDs (and DVDs) each business day. While personal views on copyright and 'ownership' can vary wildly from person to person, that must be put aside because, for the good of our clients and our business, it's important that we operate within the laws of the land.

So first of all, what is "Intellectual Property"? The following definition is provided by Wikipedia:

“Intellectual property (IP) is a term referring to distinct types of ‘creations of the mind’ for which property rights are recognised – and the corresponding fields of law. Under intellectual property law, owners are granted certain exclusive rights to a variety of intangible assets, such as musical, literary, and artistic works; discoveries and inventions; and words, phrases, symbols, and designs. Common types of intellectual property include copyrights, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights and trade secrets in some jurisdictions.”

This is very important to note because, due to the legal aspects, you can violate copyright laws with your CD duplication or CD manufacturing order if you are not the intellectual property rights owner of all content on your master. Violation of these copyright laws is generally referred to as ‘piracy’ and can be punishable in a court of law.

If you don’t own all of the intellectual property on your CD or DVD master you will need to get licensing for all un-owned content and then provide proof of licensing to the company doing the CD duplication or CD manufacturing of your order.

Obtaining Licensing for Audio/Music Content

If all the songs on your CD are your own original compositions and you're not using audio samples or sound bytes that you took from somewhere (or someone) else, then you shouldn't have any licensing concerns.

The most common licensing requirement for an audio CD is if you're performing a 'cover' version of someone else's song. If this is the case you require Mechanical Licensing - which is essentially a royalty for each CD that is made featuring the song. Separate licensing agreements must be made for each individual cover song.

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Choose CDwest.ca for factory direct CD manufacturing as well as CD duplication with eco-friendly print and packaging solutions. With offices located in Surrey, B.C. (a suburb of Vancouver) we ship daily to our clients throughout Canada.
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