"'Associate' any person firm or company which is a connected person (as defined in theIncome and Corporation Taxes Act 1988 Section 839 ) of the Licensee or which is an associated company of the Licensee within the meaning of Section 416 of that Act." "
"'Online distribution' shall mean distribution of recordings via telephone, satellite, cable, point of sale manufacturing or other means of direct transmission to the consumer over networks or through the air now known or hereafter invented."
"In breach of the said provisions of the June 1999 Agreement and the MLA, the Defendant has accounted to the Claimants only in respect of XX% of its own receipts, rather than XX% of the receipts "at source" (ie receipts by the licensees, sublicensees, affiliates or any third party obtaining rights in this respect directly or indirectly from the Defendant)."
"Upon the true construction of the June 1999 Agreement and/or the MLA, internet music providers (such as, for example, iTunes) are "sub-licensees affiliates or any third party obtaining rights in this respect directly or indirectly from [the Defendant]" within the meaning of Clause 9(d)(i) of the June 1999 Agreement or clause 6.1(b)(i) of the MLA, so that the Defendant is obliged to account to the Claimants in respect of income received at source by such providers."
"… it became standard practice for references to "at source" income to be included in royalty provisions linked to receipts. This is a term of art in the record industry which is used to include all monies received at the level of the exclusive licensee for any particular territory (ie, the person in each territory who distributes to retailers), whether by wholly owned subsidiaries, associated companies, third party licensees or sub-publishers in the pool to be considered when calculating royalties due to the artist. Many record companies operate through exclusive third party licensees in certain territories where the economics and scale of the market do not justify maintaining a subsidiary or associate company. Such wording provides certainty for both record companies and artists to the extent of the royalty pool. The purpose of such wording is to capture all monies received at the exclusive licensee level, and not to expand the royalties pool to retailers."
"In this context therefore, in an agreement made in 1999 by experienced parties negotiating royalty agreements, "third party licensees" would have been understood to refer to any companies to whom the record companies exclusively licence their catalogue for distribution within a particular territory."
"28. Clause 9(d)(i) of the June 1999 Agreement and clause 6.1(b)(i) of the MLA both provide for the Claimants' royalties as a percentage of the Defendant's receipts calculated 'at the so-called "source"
"Based on my extensive experience of the music industry, and in particular of negotiating this type of contract, it is my opinion that any experienced music industry lawyer in 1999 would have understood the phrase "at source", or "at the so-called source" as in the relevant clause to exclude the receipts of third party retailers. This is because of the move away from calculating royalties based on retail price and because of the standard meaning of "at source"
"... what a reasonable person having all the background knowledge which would have been available to the parties would have understood them to be using the language in the contract to mean."
"… the sales distribution by EMI or its Associates (whether directly or by licence) … by On-line Distribution."
"The [defendant] warrants undertakes and agrees with [the first claimant] … not to couple Records delivered hereunder with other master recordings or to sell in any form other than as the current Albums and to exploit the Albums in exactly the same form as to track listing and timing as are delivered hereunder (without limitation there are no rights to sell any or all of the Records as Single records other than with the Company's prior written consent which may be absolutely withheld)."
"Upon the true construction of the MLA, Clause 4.13 of the MLA applies to Online Distribution, so that the Defendant is not entitled to exploit the recordings on the MLA Albums (or other Albums now subject to the terms of the MLA) by Online Distribution or by any other means other than the original Album configurations, without the prior written consent of the Claimants which may be absolutely withheld (including by means of ringtones and streaming)."
"'Album' any sound alone record derived in whole or in part from the Master Tapes. 'Records' any sound alone devices manufactured by the Licensee in a configuration now known and currently exploited together with formats to be devised and derived in whole or in part from the Master Tapes. 'Single' a seven inch 45 rpm Record and/or a twelve inch (45 rpm or 33 1/3 rpm) Record (and/or the Compact Disc and/or the cassette and/or DVD and/or other agreed format equivalent thereof and all other equivalent means of exploitation the rights to which are granted to the Licensee as specified herein) containing not less than two (2) tracks or more than four (4) tracks."