ErrorSeverity

The ErrorSeverity element plays a central role in determining how an error affects the processing and registration of a rights claim. While the previous version of the MLC 1.4 standard defined three severity levels, industry experience has shown that their interpretation has not been applied consistently across RDx participants and music licensing companies. This inconsistency has, at times, led to unclear expectations regarding registration outcomes and royalty eligibility.

To address this, DDEX has refined the definitions of the existing ErrorSeverity values. The updated descriptions provide clearer guidance on how each severity level should be applied and ensure that the resulting RegistrationStatus is interpreted uniformly — regardless of whether the RCSUM is issued by RDx or by a music licensing company.

These revised definitions align with established RDx claim validation principles, with particular emphasis on the role of Critical errors and their direct impact on claim rejection. Importantly, each ErrorSeverity value maintains a one-to-one relationship with a corresponding RegistrationStatus, ensuring consistent communication of business outcomes.

The updated definitions of the ErrorSeverity AVS provide a clearer and more consistent interpretation of how each ErrorType should be assessed within the context of business rules.

ErrorSeverity is formally defined as “A classification of the impact of a validation error on business processes, indicating whether the error prevents further processing, requires attention but does not block processing, or is informational only. Error severity guides how errors affect registration status, rights claim status and downstream processes such as royalty payouts. ErrorSeverity must be used in conjunction with the RegistrationStatus element” and the following values are recommended to be used:

• Critical: The error is severe enough to prevent processing of the data and will result in the registration to be rejected. This value indicates that the claim cannot be processed or distributed without correction and the sender of the messages will mark the claim as RegistrationRejected. A Critical error signals that the claim requires immediate attention, and no payout can be expected until the issue is resolved.

• Warning: An error that indicates a rights claim declaration contains incomplete or potentially incorrect information which does not prevent the rights claim from being processed and/or registered. While the data can be ingested, this value suggests the data should be reviewed for accuracy and completeness, as it may impact the validity of the claim or the ability to ensure full payout. A Warning error signals that the registration status of the claim is set to ResourceRegisteredInvalid.

• Information: An error that the sender of the message declares to have no material impact on the processing of the rights claim. It is provided solely for contextual or advisory informational purposes, to highlight potential improvements or updates to the relevant data, without affecting claim validity or payout eligibility. An Information error signals that the registration status of the claim is set to ResourceRegisteredValid.

The standard doe not prescribe when an implementation generates warnings: Therefore, it is an internal decision if one does write the code to generate a warning every time the percentage is less than 100%. This logic generates a warning to check if there are any additional claims. It flags that the information may be incorrect, which is what the current definition expresses.