Q&A: Info regarding copyright…?

Question by Pootie Tang!: Info regarding copyright…?
Just a quick question pertaining to copyright, specifically in regards to licensees.
If a company (let’s just say Geffen) owns the creative rights and controls the intellectual property in question, but have licensed out the distribution rights to a third party company (Hmmm… Let’s just say UMG Australia), solely, as far as I can tell, for distributing the product in certain regions, does this give the third party the right to claim copyright infringement on the product in question?
As far as I can ascertain, intellectual property copyrights would be held by the creators of said music, in this case a small publishing company, and possibly by the umbrella company of which it is a subsidiary… In which case, does the distributor have any legal precedent for claiming copyright infringement?

Apologies if the text seems slightly meandering, had a few drinks and just received a cease and desist, so my prose may be affected by these factors, lol.

Cheers in advance.

Best answer:

Answer by bcnu
Depends upon the license terms, but the right to sue is often separate from the right to distribute, being more likely to be strenuously protected by the principal rather than the licensee. This oftne does NOT apply to an exclusive license, in which the exclusive licensee is presumed to be the only one likely to have an interest in protecting those rights.

The song rights include: music, lyrics, and each separate sound recording of any performance. Each has its own copyright, each of which may be divided up among various owners and licensed to various artists, publishers, distributors, performers, producers, etc.

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