Digital Distribution
As part of the digital distribution process, you need to give permission to companies to
distribute your digital work. Once they have your formal permission, which comes in the
form of a digital distribution license, they become digital distribution rights holders and
cannot be sued for copyright infringement. As the copyright holder, you receive payment, or
royalties, from each sale or download of your work. The digital distributor also makes money
off your work.
Digital: Before the internet days, there exists a limited option for the exhibition and
distribution of copyrighted content. We are all observing a new revolution as to how
copyrighted contents are acquired, exhibited, and distributed. Here the term “digital”
describes that it is an electronic technology that generates, stores, and processes data. digital
technology is firstly used within new physical communications media such as satellite and
fibre optic transmission.
Licensing agreement: It is a legal contract by which one party who owns certain intellectual
properties allows another party to use that intellectual property. The party who owns the
intellectual property is called “the licensor”. The party who uses the intellectual property is
called “the licensee”.
Digital content: That means the product or any other digital material available for License
through the site. Digital content does not include any promotional videos accessible through
the site, nor does it include the Licensor mobile app or any other, which is governed by a
separate agreement.
Methods of licensing
Copyright facilities have access to create content with creativity through licensing. As per
India’s Copyright Act, it enables three types of licensing mechanisms. They are as follows:
Compulsory licensing: It has been introduced to provide the access to the content that would
be withheld from the public. Every individual can approach the Intellectual Property
Appellate Board (IPAB) in case of any disputes which arise in the future and there will be a
fixed fee for obtaining a license.
Statutory licensing: Compulsory and statutory licensing provisions are triggered in a situation
where there is an inaccessible copyrighted work. For example, in case of a failure in the
market. This license has been proposed to ensure public access to musical works over FM
radio. Due to the failure of the music industry in the market, statutory licensing has been
proposed by the Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Standing Committee report on the Copyright
(Amendment) Bill, 2010. Contrary to the compulsory licensing, Parliament has introduced
the statutory license under the copyright law for a limited purpose. Statutory licensing is an
exception as per the Indian copyright law. Because the mechanism authorizes announcers to
approach the IPAB for the license directly without the need of negotiating with the copyright
owner.
Voluntary licensing: The copyright owner reaches an agreement with the parties who are
interred to provide a license to use the work upon the mutually agreeing terms and conditions.
Digital Distribution Process
Understanding your digital distribution rights starts with understanding the distribution
process itself. Digital distribution is the delivery of content such as books, movies and TV
programs, music, software, and video games via media-specific channels, platforms, and
devices. The content can either be downloaded or streamed. Besides the content creator, the
two main parties involved are platforms and distributors, sometimes referred to as
aggregators. The distribution of digital work involves movement through several channels,
beginning with the distributor, then the platform, and finally to the end user, or consumer.
As intermediaries between the content creator and the higher-profile distribution platforms,
distributors provide curated content as a service to the platforms, who in turn make the
content available to their customers and subscribers. Digital distributors are also responsible
for ensuring that royalties are passed back to the content creator.
Digital distribution platforms are places consumers go to the stream or buy content, such as
films and music. They have a built-in audience in the form of either customers or subscribers.
