Plagiarism and music theft or piracy – what applies?
As a music creator or music publisher, you are responsible for monitoring whether your music appears in contexts that may be perceived as offensive or in matters relating to plagiarism, distortion and theft or piracy.
Stim's main task is to ensure that our members receive payment when their music is played. Registering your music with Stim, however, does not protect against plagiarism or theft and piracy.
Protect the music
A musical work is, according to the Copyright Act, automatically protected by copyright as soon as it has been created, regardless of whether the work of music exists in notation, is recorded or is included in Stim's register. Registering it with Stim means that you get paid when the musical work is performed or released – but registration does not provide protection against copyright infringement.
Prove that you have written a song
To be able to prove that you had the material on a certain date you can send your demo, or sheet music and lyrics, in a registered letter with a return receipt to yourself, and keep the shipment unopened. That does not, however, prove that you are the one who wrote the music or lyrics, but the postmark date can be important in a dispute. This must be done before the music has begun to be distributed.
There are also a number of services that offer digital timestamping for files that can help you prove that you had the material on a specific date.
Stim's assessment committee
When a musical work is considered similar to another, composers can sometimes disagree. Stim does not resolve such disputes, they must be resolved by the parties themselves. However, at Stim we have an assessment committee that can provide an opinion.
The committee's opinions are merely advisory. On the basis of the committee's opinion, Stim can sometimes withhold money for a work until it is clarified who is entitled to receive the payouts. Stim's assessment committee consists of representatives from SKAP, FST and Musikförläggarna.
Contact member services for more information about the assessment committee's work.