Tensorial Rights Framework
17-page PDF · not legal advice
In March 2025 I wrote this paper on how to model who owns what in a remix. It became the first version of the rights model Vers1ons checks licenses against.
What the paper covers
A producer makes a beat. A vocalist licenses it for a track. A DJ remixes that track with vocals that came through a separate license chain. Then a film studio wants the remix for a trailer, in the US only, for six months. The paper asks whether the studio can use it and who gets paid.
It models a license as a grid. One side lists rights, such as record and modify. The other side lists terms, such as time and territory. Each cell holds a rule that says whether an action is allowed. Propagation rules carry each original work's restrictions into every remix made from it, so checking a license means checking the whole chain above it.
The paper maps legal grant types onto the model, sketches how a validation call works, and looks at how the cost of a check grows as chains get longer.
Stack
- Product
- LaTeX