The FastTrack network: Overview and Aims Antonio Brunetti Fabrizio Zavagli AXMEDIS –Conference Florence 1 December 2005

About S.I.A.E. SIAE (Società Italiana degli Autori ed Editori) is an Italian organization that associates composers, authors, publishers and other owners of any kind of Intellectual Property (music, theatre, movie, book, figurative art...) for the purpose of the protection of their works. The essential function of SIAE consists in the activity of mediation in the management of its members’ copyrights and, accordingly, SIAE issues licenses and authorizations to use the works under protection, receives the related payments (royalties) and distributes its income to the right- owners.

About S.I.A.E. SIAE was created in 1882, ranking Giuseppe Verdi among its founders. Currently, more than authors and composers are registered at SIAE, and more than musical works are protected. SIAE is one of the FastTrack founding members.

Scenario The following requirements led to the creation of FastTrack:  Collecting societies need to share a high volume of works information for distribution statements  A global market requires cooperation between collecting societies in order to improve services  Similarities among collecting societies’ business processes allow to develop and share common practices and tools 

What is FastTrack?  Is an Alliance Of Twelve Music Copyright Member Societies  Provides tools to exchange information on (currently) Musical Works by means of a global decentralized database network  Is an initiative to improve on technical and business standards by sharing of best practices between member societies  Builds tools and facilities to improve data exchange and relationship with users of the “works product”

FastTrack Member Societies  AKM/AUME – Austria  ASCAP – United States  BMI – United States  BUMA/Stemra – The Netherlands  GEMA – Germany  MCPS-PRS-Alliance – United Kingdom  SABAM – Belgium  SACEM – France  SGAE – Spain  SIAE – Italy  SOCAN – Canada  SUISA – Switzerland

FastTrack Founding Societies  AKM/AUME – Austria  ASCAP – United States  BMI – United States  BUMA/Stemra – The Netherlands  GEMA – Germany  MCPS-PRS-Alliance – United Kingdom  SABAM – Belgium  SACEM – France  SGAE – Spain  SIAE – Italy  SOCAN - Canada  SUISA – Switzerland FastTrack was born in september 2000 with the 5 founding members

The Core Project: GDDN Network  What it means: GDDN stands for Global Documentation and Distribution Network  What it is: Is a distributed search engine that retrieves musical works-related data at each of the connected societies’ premises  What it’s for: Contains vital data for proper royalty distribution of musical works. Collecting societies need it for a correct international distribution of collected money to the members (authors/publishers). GDDN fills in the need for a better documentation flow among Collecting Societies – resulting in a more accurate distribution of royalties

The GDDN Network Local DB XML DataBroker Search Engine SOCIETY 1 INTERNET ** Clients Local DB XML DataBroker Search Engine ** Clients System features:  Web standards (XML, XSLT, HTTPS)  Security (SSL and Perimetral)  Flexible relational data model SOCIETY 2

The GDDN Network INTERNET * Client User Authenticates on Centralized Security Server SOCIETY 1SOCIETY 2 XML DataBroker Local DB Search Engine Local DB XML DataBroker * SUISA (Switzerland) IPI DB International Interested Parties Archive

The GDDN Network  Current state:  2,300 registered users  1,800 daily connections  53 connected societies (including CISAC)  11 contributing societies  20,565,231 total searchable musical works (including CISAC contributors)

The GDDN Network  The future: 1.Increased back-office functionalities for higher accuracy in data cleanup (DBs data exchange and Synchronization, automated shares consistency monitoring for works in foreign countries) 2.Inclusion of sound carriers information (records) 3.Inclusion of Audio-visual works data

FastTrack and CISAC  Extending the use of FastTrack tools CISAC, the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers, a body that counts 210 authors’ societies from 109 countries as its members, is a FastTrack tools licensee CISAC tools powered by FastTrack are CISNet and ISWCNet

FastTrack and CISAC  CISNet The CISNet search engine, based on FastTrack’s GDDN, allows CISAC member societies to search connected database for domestic repertoire. Over than 50 societies are currently accessing CISNet, with more coming every month. CISAC societies can act as simple users or, even better, contributors.

FastTrack and CISAC  ISWC ISWC is the International Standard Work Code, an internationally recognized reference number to uniquely identify a musical work across the globe  ISWCNet This search engine allows everyone (the general public) to search connected societies’ musical works databases, including the ISWC code and some basic information such as:  Work Title  Authors  Work metadata (duration, type, etc.)

FastTrack and CISAC: ISWCNet PUBLIC INTERNET * * Local DB XML DataBroker Search Engine ISWCNet System XML DataBroker Local DB Local DB Local DB

Other FastTrack Initiatives  Online Works Registration One of the goals of FastTrack is the development of a common system for registration of musical works using the Internet: a shared framework implemented by the Societies to give our members a better service. Currently, we are facing legal issues with this initiative. Once the rules will be fixed, we’ll be able to further develop and make use of this tool.

Contacts  SIAE Corporate website:  FastTrack Corporate website:  CISAC Corporate website: ISWC Network:

End of presentation THANK YOU!