Seed Bandcamp track license URLs

[FibreTTP]

While Bandcamp releases usually have the license shown on the release page itself, tracks of a release are also individually licensed. Harmony is currently able to seed the license URL of the main release, but not the licenses of the tracks.

In fact, the release is only licensed under a certain license if all the tracks are tagged with the same license (or so it seems).

For releases with differently licensed tracks, the release page reads Some rights reserved. Please refer to individual track pages for license info.

Combine this with the Style guidance that relationships should "prefer the most specific level", I think it'd be nice if the license URLs of the tracks were able to be seeded in Release Actions, along with the usual Steam for Free URL relationships.

It's probably fine to keep seeding the main release with the main license URL as well.

Related: #37

[arsinclair]

Good idea, but MB currently doesn't support Copyright relationships on recording level.

[FibreTTP]

I'm talking about the Recording-URL relationship License.

Here's one example: https://musicbrainz.org/url/58d5fd4f-4543-4736-8ccf-9ee4160d75c4

[FibreTTP]

Though now that I'm reading the guidelines on that relationship specifically, where it states:

Release level links should be preferred over recording level. Examples where recording level is required are mixed-license releases and standalone recordings.

Maybe only seed the license URL to recordings when the Bandcamp release is mixed-licensed.

I've gotta say though, I disagree with this guidance. Relationships should always be applied to the most specific level. Especially when there's ambiguity here in what exactly the license could apply to. I'm not sure legally if licensing some entity applies that license to everything the entity encompasses -- does licensing a release under some CC license mean the cover art is also CC licensed? I'd argue so, but that's probably not what most artists intend.

[kellnerd]

Yes, recording-level license relationships is something Harmony could support once it optionally extracts data from track pages. I would be conservative in an initial implementation and only add recording relationships for mixed-license releases, though. Wider usage of recording license relationships is something for a more general MB style discussion.

Fetching track pages is currently very expensive (slow) which makes it unsuitable to enable by default. But we are finding more and more details which are only available on track pages (of admittedly only few releases where everything is filled out):

• ISRC
• lyrics (although we can't seed them, only display them)
• license
• correct link types in all edge cases, see seed Bandcamp relationship types for recording URLs #95
• track-specific (plain text) credits

[FibreTTP]

lyrics (although we can't seed them, only display them)

If track pages being fetched ever gets implemented, could you detect when a recording on a release has a work, then seed the URL to the work (in release actions)?

track-specific credits

These are just plain text entered by the uploader IIRC? I don't believe there are specific and separate fields for composer, lyricist, etc.

[arsinclair]

I'm talking about the Recording-URL relationship License.

I see, I misunderstood you.

Licenses are sort of a murky area (or maybe I'm just ignorant 😁). If a permissive license is specified at the track/recording level does it mean that I'm free to distribute the recording however I like, or does it mean that I'm free to use the lyrics and the melody of a song to make my own song, but not necessarily freely distribute the actual recording? In other words, a permissive license removes the Copyright or a Phonographic Copyright or both?

[FibreTTP]

This is getting off topic, so feel free to mark it as such.

First of all, licenses definitely DO NOT replace copyright. They are a license to reproduce the copyrighted work. The licensor retains all copyright on their work, but cannot revoke any rights (permissions) opened by the license.

I'm most familiar with the Creative Commons, so I'll try to explain it in the context of their licenses. CC licenses (in my understanding, and in the specific context of a track on an album on Bandcamp) apply to both the recording and the work directly related to it as one entity, unless otherwise specified.

So unless the track is licensed with the No Derivatives clause, you would be allowed to take the lyrics, etc. and create a new work with them, so long as you make it known what material was taken and from what work (attribution is required on all CC licenses). You may also have to license your work with the same license if the original was a Share Alike license. You would also have permission to distribute the recording as-is, which is kinda the whole point of CC licenses.

Note that this is only guaranteed to apply to the specific source of the music you were licensed to (not to someone else's performance of the work).