Many aspects of the publication of music are territorial; the most obvious one is the copyright. A publisher may, for instance, have rights to a musical work in New Zealand and Australia, or in all the world but not in France and Belgium.

All XML-based DDEX standards – including MWN in all versions – support the communication of territorially different data in two ways: The territory can be communicated either as an XML attribute – called, for example, ApplicableTerritoryCode – which allows signalling a single territory.

Alternatively, a territory can be signalled with a TerritoryCode XML element (more specifically with a choice between 0-n TerritoryCode XML elements or 0-n ExcludedTerritoryCode XML elements). This allows to signal one or multiple territories where something applies (or one or multiple territories where something does not apply). It is also possible to use ApplicableTerritoryCode and TerritoryCode to signal that something applies to the entire world.

These tags are based on several allowed-value sets:

• Two-letter ISO 3166-1 alpha 2 territory codes as published by the ISO-appointed registration agency (e.g. JP for Japan);

• Commonly used “user assigned” two-letter ISO 3166-1 alpha 2 territory codes (e.g. XK for Kosovo);

• ISO 3166-2 codes for subdivisions of countries (e.g. ES-CE for the Spanish territory of Ceuta). These values are added into DDEX’s territory list on request only;

• Four letter ISO 3166-3 codes for former territories or territories that have changed their names (e.g. SUHH for the former Soviet Union);

• Decimal TIS codes as defined in CISAC’s Territory Information System (e.g. 276 for Germany and 2123 for the European Union); and

• The value Worldwide.

The ISO-based codes (for more information see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3166) identify a single territory with a single code. The TIS codes also provide codes for geographical and political regions.

Optimising the communication of territories in MWN 1.3

Version 1.3 of the MWN standard adds a more efficient way to communicate territories, avoiding ambiguities by defining territory groups within the message itself. The new approach is based on these requirements:

1. The communication of territories shall be based on ISO 3166 only (plus a value Worldwide);

2. The communication of territories shall enable to group territories in any given message.

3. However, such groupings shall be defined separately for each message to avoid long-term ambiguity;

4. It shall be possible to communicate a single individual territory or a territory grouping wherever a territory needs specifying; and

5. It may also be possible to communicate multiple individual territories or multiple territory groupings wherever a territory needs specifying.

Therefore, the MWN messages have been augmented with a new TerritoryList composite that contains 0-n Territory definitions. These Territory definitions are valid only for the message they are contained in, and are expressed as lists of ISO 3611 codes (or Worldwide) and are locally identified with a TerritoryReference:

To use such a self-defined region the following set of XML elements is used. It allows to signal 1-n territory groupings as defined above (using the TerritoryReference), 1-n ISO territory codes or 1-n excluded ISO territory codes:

This approach is only available in MWN (and only in version 1.3).

Examples

To communicate the European Union one has two options shown below in XML. The option for MWN 1.3 shown on the left becomes increasingly efficient if the EU “territory” is used in multiple places in the message; the option for MWN 1.1 shown on the right is still available in MWN 1.3, but not recommended for territory groups:

To communicate the World minus US and Canada using the new structure the Territory composite shall be set up like this:

<TerritoryList>
  <Territory>
    <TerritoryReference>
      Y_RestOfTheWorld
    </TerritoryReference>
    <ExcludedTerritoryCode>US</ExcludedTerritoryCode>
    <ExcludedTerritoryCode>CA</ExcludedTerritoryCode>
  </Territory>
</TerritoryList>

Recommendations

When communicating territories in version 1.3 of the MWN standard, DDEX recommends that

1. Implementers should use the TerritoryList introduced in MWN 1.3;

2. While MWN 1.3 allows using the “old” and “new” approach side by side, mixing them can lead to confusion. Therefore implementers should not use the two approaches side by side within a message, i.e. if a message contains a TerritoryList, all territories used in the message should be defined in that list. In that case even single territories would need to be allocated a local reference in the message; and

3. For messages that use the “old” option already provided by MWN 1.1, TIS codes should not be used in the TerritoryCode and ExcludedTerritoryCode and ApplicableTerritoryCode elements and attributes.