If you've been around the media business as long as I have, then you would have seen a number of stoushes over Royalties, Licensing and a whole raft of intellectual property law issues. 

Briefly, Royalties are a payment for a work done in the past and being used by another party in return for payment. Licencing is a somewwhat similar arrangement (ok - armchair lawyers can split hairs over this one). In short, you use someone else's work - be it music, technology, text, pretty much anything - and you are required to gain permission to use it.

Permission may be granted for you to do so without cost to you, but it is more likely that a payment will be required. In either case, you need documentation to support that either condition has occurred. However, if you choose not to support the rights of the owner(s) of the work(s) in question, you could well end up in Court. 

Just because the original author of the work gives you permission to use it doesn't mean that they still own that authority. In certain cases, the rights to a work may have been sold to some other person or company for a consideration (read: money). There are some opportunistic entrepreneurs (cough), out there who will acquire the rights to a work speculatively. Just make sure the work you're using has not been subject to those kinds of changes of ownership. If no perfect answer can be found, at least cover yourself with as much documentation supporting your position as could be seen to be reasonable. 

As a side note, did you realise that many optical media products (both pre-recorded and recordable) are subject to patents? The majority of those patents have a Royalty scheme attached. The factories who make those discs are expected to pay Royalties as per the terms of the contract which allows them to use the technology invented by other companies. Difficult, costly development of advanced technologies. 

Why do I mention this? 

In the case of some suppliers and some end users in certain markets (notice how I can't name names for legal reasons?), have been pursued by the relevant owner of the technology for payment as a result of the factory who made the discs not paying the royalty. It's not a large amount per unit, by say, 300000 units supplied with a newspaper, it's a tidy chunk of change which eats a hole in an already low-margin exercise. Let alone legal fees - that part is the real sticker. It's not just your lawyers, but also their lawyers who will need to be paid for as well as much precious time lost. 

Speaking of lawyers, copyright, licensing and all, have a read of this (link opens in new window). It's an article about a case before the Courts at the time of writing, so I can't comment. However, it's worth reading despite being rather lengthy. Quite an eye opener in some ways.

Hope the week ahead is good for you.

Cheers - Virgil. 

The above article does not constitute advice. It is merely the author's opinion. If you need to know more about intellectual property law, we strongly recommend you talk to a specialist intellectual property lawyer.