Taking the Effort Out of Counterclaims and Disputes
For copyright managers, dealing with conflicts and counterclaims can be a pain. All that emailing back and forth with societies and fellow publishers to correct a song registration, only to see the same conflict pop up again in another country.
Blokur alerts publishers to conflicts on a multi-territory basis, provides a user-friendly way to solve them for multiple countries at once, and distributes corrections to the relevant societies. Sounds like a major time-saver right? Here’s how it works.
How to resolve conflicts and disputes via Blokur
At Blokur we receive data directly from music publishers and most of the time the shares line up with what other publishers send us. However, there are sometimes conflicts.
Blokur highlights conflicts on a global basis so that publishers can easily identify which of their works are impacted and for which territories. If you have a conflict in Blokur, it means that the information you have submitted is at odds with the current version held on record called the “state”. (Check out our blog on State Update for more info)
When you visit a work that is in conflict, you have the choice to either accept the other party’s view or open a counterclaim to make the case for your claim.
Opening a counterclaim
Clicking the ‘Open Counterclaim’ button directs you to a page which shows you all the specific details of the conflict in question, enabling you to pinpoint the data you need.
- The ‘Current State’ is the current information that Blokur holds on record for the song
- ‘Your Claim’ is reflective of the data that was submitted by you to Blokur and that will be added to the state if your claim is successful. For example, in the screenshot below, Big Tuna Publishing is attempting to replace a disputed portion of the state with its claim
Adding your information
You will then see a message box, where you can enter a message to be sent to the other party or parties, and the option to provide evidence. Sending a message without evidence is good for informal situations where you are confident the other party will agree with you. If you upload a contract or letter of direction it will start a clock ticking and alert the other party that they need to respond in 60 days if they wish to challenge your claim.
Note: The evidence you upload will be seen by the other party. If you need to keep contract details private, a letter of direction is a good way to go.
Informing collection societies
Finally, at the bottom of the page, you have the option to select collection societies who you would like to receive the result of the counterclaim. The society integration feature notifies collecting societies worldwide of the updated outcome to ensure their databases are up to date, all with just a click of a button. This drastically reduces the time that would be spent on sending emails, and makes you look super-efficient to the rest of your team.
Evidence review
Once the claim is submitted, Blokur will perform a quick check to confirm whether your evidence is relevant, and then start a conversation between you and the other publisher.
Communicating with counter-parties
When somebody responds to your counter-claim, you will see a chat window where you can discuss the claim.
The chat feature helps de-personalize the process of resolving claims since there are no employee names attached to it. All interactions are on behalf of the company, which we believe will make communication easier.
What if I receive a counterclaim from somebody else?
You can choose to ‘Accept Counterclaim’ if you agree with the other party’s proposal. If you accept, the disputed part(s) of your claim will be removed, and the state will be updated in favour of the other parties. If you disagree with the proposal, you can respond by providing your own evidence.
That’s it!
Just like that, counterclaims can be solved with just a few clicks, saving copyright managers time and helping to make sure that royalties reach their rightful owners.
Already have an account with Blokur? Log In now to check if there are any conflicts in your data.
If you want to find out more about Blokur and how we’re working to improve rights data, visit us at blokur.com If you have any questions or comments, feel free to reach out to derek@blokur.com
