Should Decentraland DAO pay for an annual Blanket Music License?

by 0x31e0a65b27553d6ade0b37191cee29ebbb63fbdb (GrizzledGatsby)

DCL as a platform does not have a blanket music license, and its terms and conditions hold land owners responsible for any activity on their land. This means ALL of us need our own terms and conditions built into our properties and any and all appropriate licenses to communicate music.

We have been having discussions with SOCAN (the music licensing body in Canada), about the best way to approach protecting artists in the web3 space and the most appropriate way to move forward with licensing. Ultimately, SOCAN is a not-for-profit that exists to ensure artists get royalties from license fees whenever and wherever their work is communicated.

To be clear, SOCAN is not on a witch hunt, but these issues WILL be resolved with or without us. Now is the time for us to have an impact on what music licensing looks like in the web3 space. Together with these licensing bodies, we believe that we can build a bright future where everyone is protected and creators receive proper compensation for the communication of their works, whether at events in the meta, distribution of music via NFT, etc.

Whether we like it or not, the reality is that licensing needs to be addressed. We propose doing a Twitter Spaces AMA with SOCAN on July 28th to educate the community on current regulations and start the discussion about the best way to license this new space. We are of the opinion that DAO funds should be used to blanket license anyone who purchases land to allow for more creative freedom to communicate music. We may decide as a community that the best way to proceed is to keep things decentralized, but then, as previously stated, the onus will be on us as landowners to ensure we are compliant.

OPTIONS:

1. DAO pays retroactive licensing fees for all users and agrees to work with licensing bodies to pay for an annual blanket license moving forward. (I will help facilitate these conversations, and SOCAN can help to connect DCL Foundation with sister licensing bodies to move towards international compliance)

or

2. Leave the responsibility to land owners to obtain their own licenses. This means land owners will need licenses for every jurisdiction where their end users reside.

• DAO pays retroactive music licensing fees and for blanket license annually
• Leave the responsibility to land owners to obtain their own licenses
• Invalid question/options

Vote on this proposal on the Decentraland DAO