The Claims Website currently provides information related to undistributed major label royalties associated with two separate categories of products under the Pending List Class Action Settlement:
► Group III Products
This category comprises products released in Canada between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2012, inclusive. Group III Products are subject to certain specific settlement terms. First, only the details related to items with a minimum aggregate pending value of $1,000.00 will be available for claims via CSI’s Claims Website. Wherever possible however, CSI will combine multiple lower value pending items for the same, or similar, recordings in order to achieve the $1,000.00 threshold required for publication.
The deadlines to make a claim related to Group III Products are October 3, 2017 for Medium-Value Items and April 3, 2018 for High-Value Items.
A complete list of Medium and High-Value Group III Products is also available in Excel format on request.
► Post-2012 Products
Post-2012 Products are not subject to the same treatment. There is no value threshold requirement for those items and therefore all items will be available for review and claim by rightsholders regardless of their individual value. The claims period for these items is dependent on the existence of an Unlocatable Owner’s Licence, as issued by the Copyright Board of Canada pursuant to Section 77 of the Copyright Act. The terms of such Unlocatable Owner’s Licences provide that accrued royalties remain available to be claimed for a period of five years following the expiry of the applicable licence, which itself has a term of five years. For additional information on the issuance of Unlocatable Owner’s Licences, please click here. Where an Unlocatable Owner’s Licence does not exist for the item in question, there is no current time limitation within which the royalties must be claimed.
For each item in either of the above categories, CSI discloses all of the identifying information it has received from the record companies, as well as any additional information it can supplement from its own research. Note however that the individual value of each item is not disclosed, although CSI will provide the appropriate value category that applies to each one (High/Medium/Low).
If you uncover any musical works for which you have not received your share of royalties, you can make a claim directly from your browser.
To make a claim, you are required to open a user account requiring you to disclose certain identifying information and payment instructions, where applicable.
You will also be required to attest, for each claim, that your claim is valid and that you, or any other party acting on your behalf, have not already received payment for your share of the musical work in relation to the recording(s) in question. In addition, you may be required to submit additional documentation to support your ownership claim in the musical work in question.
It’s important to remember that musical works are often divided between many ownership shares and that while royalties for some shares have not been paid, royalties for your share may have been paid to you or to your business associates, such as to your publisher, sub-publisher, co-publisher, or previous administrator.
For this reason, it is important that a thorough verification of your books and records, as well as inquiries with your business associates, be conducted prior to making a claim to an item on the pending list.
CSI will validate all claims submitted by registered class members against its own records prior to approving the claim for payment to the rightsholders in question. Registered users are able to review the status of their claims within their user account.
At the end of each Claims Period, CSI will confirm all approved claims and will distribute the royalties as applicable.
If you have any questions, please refer to our FAQ sections, or contact us.