Chapter 36 Quiz — Copyright, Licensing, and Getting Paid

Closed book, honest effort. Multiple choice: 1 point each. True/False: 2 points (1 for the verdict, 1 for the justification — a lucky coin-flip with a wrong reason earns half). Short answer: 3 points each. Applied scenario: 5 points. Total: 42. Scoring table at the end. Standing stamp on everything here: educational, US-centric as of this writing, not legal advice. Wrong answers are a reading map, not a verdict.

Section 1 — Multiple Choice (15 × 1 pt)

1. The two-copyrights model says every recorded song contains:

  • A) A copyright and a trademark
  • B) A composition copyright (the song itself) and a master copyright (the specific sound recording)
  • C) A lyrics copyright and a melody copyright
  • D) A US copyright and an international copyright
Answer **B.** The song as an abstract work (melody, lyrics, chords — owned by its writers) and the particular fixed recording of it (owned by whoever made/paid for the recording). Every license and royalty in the chapter attaches to one side or the other.

2. Copyright protection for your song begins:

  • A) When you register with the Copyright Office
  • B) When you release it commercially
  • C) The moment the work is fixed — written down or recorded
  • D) When you mail yourself a sealed copy
Answer **C.** Fixation is the trigger; protection is automatic in the US and across the international treaty framework. Registration adds enforcement power, not existence. D is the myth the sidebar buried.

3. The main practical reason to register with the US Copyright Office before trouble starts is:

  • A) Without registration your song isn't copyrighted
  • B) Registration is required to upload to streaming platforms
  • C) Timely registration unlocks statutory damages and attorney's fees, making enforcement economically possible for small artists
  • D) Registration prevents anyone from covering your song
Answer **C.** You generally can't sue over a US work unregistered, and registering before infringement (or within the grace window around publication) qualifies you for statutory damages and fees — the teeth that make a lawyer's phone ring for an independent artist. A is false (automatic on fixation); D confuses it with a veto covers don't have anyway.

4. Three friends co-write a song with nothing in writing. The US default is:

  • A) Whoever had the original idea owns it
  • B) Joint authorship with equal undivided shares
  • C) Ownership proportional to each person's contribution
  • D) The performer owns it
Answer **B.** Equal shares regardless of actual contribution — the default the split sheet exists to replace with the writers' real deal.

5. On the split sheet, which contribution belongs on the composition table?

  • A) Mixing the record
  • B) Mastering the record
  • C) Writing the topline melody and lyrics
  • D) Performing a part someone else wrote
Answer **C.** Melody, lyrics, chords, and original hooks are writing. Mixing, mastering, and performing are master-side craft — compensated in master percentages, fees, or points, not songwriting shares.

6. In modern production-driven genres, the instrumental track (chords, drums, bassline) made by the producer is treated as:

  • A) Engineering, with no ownership implications
  • B) Part of the composition — the producer is a co-writer
  • C) Automatically work-for-hire
  • D) Only relevant to the master copyright
Answer **B.** The track is composition. A common starting convention in hip-hop and pop circles puts the track and topline at half each before adjusting — Jaylen isn't "just the producer" on the kitchen-table sheet.

7. "Self-published" means:

  • A) Your songs have no publisher and lose the publisher share
  • B) You are your own publisher — full ownership, with the registration-and-collection job attached
  • C) You can't join a PRO
  • D) Your music is in the public domain
Answer **B.** Unsigned, both the writer share and publisher share are yours — provided you claim both halves through your PRO's mechanics.

8. An admin deal differs from a traditional publishing deal because the administrator:

  • A) Takes ownership of your copyrights forever
  • B) Handles registration, licensing, and collection for a commission while you keep 100% ownership
  • C) Only collects sync fees
  • D) Replaces your PRO
Answer **B.** Commission (commonly quoted in the ten-to-twenty percent range as of this writing) for the paperwork-and-collection job; ownership stays with you. Ownership deals are a different animal — and a lawyer-list item.

9. Which royalty pair does a single on-demand stream trigger on the composition side?

  • A) Sync and master-use
  • B) Performance and mechanical
  • C) Neighboring rights and print
  • D) Mechanical only
Answer **B.** Streaming is classified as part performance (PRO collects) and part mechanical (in the US, The MLC collects) — the archaeology of old categories applied to a new technology.

10. In the US, terrestrial AM/FM radio play pays:

  • A) Both songwriters and recording owners
  • B) Recording owners only
  • C) Songwriters (via PROs) but not recording owners or performers
  • D) Nobody
Answer **C.** The famous US hole: no terrestrial performance right for sound recordings — unlike most other developed countries, which is why neighboring-rights collection abroad matters.

11. SoundExchange-category royalties (US digital performance on the master) are split by statute, as of this writing:

  • A) 100% to the rights owner
  • B) Half to the rights owner, 45% to featured artists, 5% to non-featured session funds
  • C) 50/50 between writer and publisher
  • D) By whatever the split sheet says
Answer **B.** A statutory split that pays featured performers directly — which is why Demi registers as a featured artist regardless of what the master table says.

12. Releasing a song that samples a commercial recording requires:

  • A) Nothing if the sample is under six seconds
  • B) A master-use clearance from the recording's owner AND a license from the composition's publisher(s)
  • C) Only the master clearance
  • D) Only credit in the liner notes
Answer **B.** Two properties, two yeses, either side can refuse or price you out. A is the myth — no statutory free-sample length exists.

13. An interpolation (re-performing the borrowed material yourself) eliminates:

  • A) Both clearances
  • B) The composition license
  • C) The master clearance — the composition license is still required
  • D) The need for a split sheet
Answer **C.** No recording is used, so the master owner exits the conversation; the notes and words remain someone's song.

14. The compulsory mechanical license for covers means:

  • A) You can cover any released song without permission by following the statutory process and paying the statutory rate
  • B) You can cover unreleased demos
  • C) You can rewrite the lyrics freely
  • D) You own a share of the composition once you cover it
Answer **A.** The one place the owner's veto is removed by law. Unreleased songs need consent; transformations fall outside the compulsory zone; and a cover earns you master-side money only — the song stays entirely the writers'.

15. A "one-stop" track, in sync vocabulary, is one where:

  • A) The song has only one writer
  • B) A single party (or one tight, signed group) controls both copyrights and can clear everything with one signature
  • C) The track has no vocals
  • D) The license covers one episode only
Answer **B.** One email, two licenses, no archaeology — the thing supervisors select for, and the thing a signed split sheet plus a clean sample declaration documents.

Section 2 — True/False with Justification (5 × 2 pts)

16. Mailing yourself a sealed copy of your song establishes a "poor man's copyright" that protects you almost as well as registration.

Answer **False.** Protection already exists on fixation, so the envelope adds no right — and it confers none of registration's enforcement benefits (suit eligibility, statutory damages, attorney's fees, public record). It's evidentially weak folklore; the Copyright Office's own materials say it's no substitute. Mail nothing; register.

17. Joining a PRO is sufficient to start collecting performance royalties on your released songs.

Answer **False.** PROs pay per registered *work*. Membership without song registrations — title, writers, IPIs, splits matching the split sheet — gives the play data nothing to attach to. The four-desk evening exists because beginners stop at step one.

18. Because the courts are split on de minimis sampling, a short, unrecognizable sample carries unpredictable legal risk rather than guaranteed safety.

Answer **True.** One federal appeals court held de minimis doesn't apply to sound recordings at all ("Get a license or do not sample"); another later recognized it for trivial takings. You can't choose which standard a future dispute applies — so it's a risk decision, and clearance is the only safe harbor.

19. A producer's "points" are percentage points of the recording's royalty income, granted by contract — not ownership shares of the composition.

Answer **True.** Points live on the master side: a carved share of the recording's revenue (commonly cited at three to five for established producers in traditional deals), paid per the contract's definitions. Composition shares come only from writing — same human, two hats, two properties.

20. If a session bassist records a part on your track for cash with nothing signed, your ownership of the master is completely unaffected.

Answer **False.** With no release or work-for-hire/assignment language, the player arguably holds rights in their recorded performance — a lingering claim over the master. The fix is a one-page session release signed before anyone leaves; paper transfers ownership, vibes don't.

Section 3 — Short Answer (4 × 3 pts)

21. Trace one on-demand stream of a self-released song through the royalty river: name the streams it triggers on each side of the two-copyrights split and who collects each (US categories, as of this writing).

Answer Master side: streaming revenue collected by the distributor, paid to the master owners per the dashboard splits. Composition side: a performance fragment collected by each writer's PRO (writer + publisher shares) and a mechanical fragment collected by The MLC (publisher side). On *non-interactive* digital play, the master also earns digital-performance royalties via SoundExchange — rights owners plus the featured artist's statutory cut.

22. Explain why the chapter calls the split sheet "friendship insurance," naming the legal default it overrides and the two predictable human failure modes it prevents.

Answer It replaces the joint-authorship default (equal undivided shares regardless of contribution) with the writers' actual deal, in writing, signed while the song is worth nothing. It prevents: honest memory divergence (everyone's recollection promotes their own contributions as time passes) and stakes distortion (a philosophy conversation about percentages of nothing becomes a hostage negotiation once real money is on the table). Cheap now, catastrophic later — the asymmetry is the whole argument.

23. A supervisor wants "Static Bloom" for a streaming series. Name the two licenses they'll issue, the third royalty stream the placement generates afterward, and two items from the sync-ready package that decide whether the deal closes by Friday.

Answer A sync license (composition) and a master-use license (recording), each a negotiated fee. Afterward, broadcasts/plays of the show generate performance royalties through the writers' PROs. Deal-deciders (any two): the instrumental version on hand ([Chapter 35](../chapter-35-distribution/index.md)'s alts), one-stop ownership answerable instantly (the signed split sheet + clean sample declaration), broadcast-quality masters and stems at arm's reach, accurate embedded contact/ownership metadata.

24. Give the honest two-way triage from the chapter: three situations where you genuinely need an entertainment lawyer, and three where DIY is the correct call.

Answer Lawyer (any three): signing anything exclusive/ownership-transferring (publishing, label, management, exclusive sync rep); real money on the table (sizable sync quote, advance, brand deal); sample clearance for a commercial release; active infringement you intend to enforce; band/collective formation documents; significant work-for-hire paper. DIY (any three): split sheets among collaborators; PRO/MLC/SoundExchange registrations; copyright registration; distributor uploads; cover flows through the distributor's process; reading a sample-pack license.

Section 4 — Applied Scenario (5 pts)

25. Untangle this mess. A trio released a song eight months ago: Kira made the beat and mixed it, Dev wrote and sang the topline, and their friend Marcus replayed a bassline from a 1979 funk record "so it's not a sample." The release went out through Kira's distributor account under her artist name; she's kept 100% of the streaming money "since it was her account." Dev joined a PRO last year but never registered the song. Nobody else is registered anywhere. The song just got a sync inquiry, and Dev's PRO statement shows nothing. Identify five distinct problems and prescribe the fix for each. (Award yourself the fifth point only if at least one fix addresses the replayed bassline correctly.)

Answer Any five, fixes attached: **(1) No split sheet** — composition ownership is sitting on the joint-authorship default while memories age; fix: hold the kitchen-table conversation now, in writing, signed (Kira's beat is composition; Dev's topline is composition; the mixing is master-side). **(2) Master money unshared** — "her account" isn't an ownership agreement; fix: agree the master table (Kira's production/mix weight acknowledged), then configure the distributor's split feature to pay it automatically. **(3) The replayed bassline is an interpolation, not a free pass** — re-performing ducked the *master* clearance only; the 1979 song's writers still own that musical material; fix: license/credit the composition side (and disclose it on the split sheet's samples line) before the sync conversation goes further — supervisors will ask. **(4) Dev's PRO shows nothing because the work was never registered** — membership pays nothing per se; fix: register the song with all writers, IPIs, and splits matching the sheet; Kira joins a PRO as a writer too (and both claim publisher shares as self-published). **(5) The rest of the four-desk evening is missing** — no MLC registration (streaming mechanicals pooling unclaimed), no SoundExchange registrations (rights-owner and featured-artist roles), no copyright registration (no enforcement teeth, and the timely-registration clock is running); fix: register at each desk, then reconcile distributor metadata (writer credits) against the new sheet. **Sync-readiness bonus:** the inquiry needs an instrumental, stems, and a one-stop answer — which only exists once 1–3 are papered.

Scoring

Score Verdict
38–42 Registered and reconciled. Run the Project Checkpoint for real — the four-desk evening, this week — then on to Chapter 37.
30–37 Solid model, leaky details. Re-skim whichever half cost you — ownership (questions 1–8) or the money map (9–25) — then execute the checkpoint.
21–29 The two-copyrights model isn't load-bearing yet. Reread "One Song, Two Copyrights" and the taxonomy table, run Desk Lab C4 (the royalty-flow trace), retake.
Below 21 No shame — this chapter is a different discipline than the other thirty-nine. Re-run it with the split-sheet template and the taxonomy table printed out; the machinery makes sense the second time through.