Stream fraud:we don't tolerate it.
Bot streams, bought plays, stream-loop farms, plagiarism — all of it harms honest artists, harms OGRECORDS™ and harms our advance investors. This manifesto describes what we detect, how we sanction, and what rights you have as an honest artist. Binding on every distribution agreement and advance contract.
1. What counts as fraud
Artificially generated streams (bots, click farms, automated loops), bought plays via third parties, coordinated playlist manipulation, plagiarism of an existing track without license, identity theft at account setup. Not fraud: organic viral spikes from TikTok, editorial playlists, or sync placements.
2. How we detect
A combination of: DSP-native fraud flags (Spotify, Apple), streaming anomalies (spikes >10× daily average without external signal), geo concentration (e.g. 95% streams from a single unfamiliar country), playlist concentration on opaque third-party lists, audio-fingerprint matches against plagiarism databases.
3. What happens on suspicion
We place a `royalty_hold` on the affected streams (payments paused) and contact you within 5 business days with the concrete signals. You have an opportunity to explain — sync placements, editorial playlist wins, etc. are recognised and the hold is released.
4. What happens on confirmed fraud
Royalties for the affected streams are withheld and refunded to the DSPs if requested. Repeat offence: account suspension + immediate takedown of all releases. Damages claim per Terms §11.
5. Impact on advance
Confirmed fraud during an active advance: any unreleased tranches are frozen, the outstanding recoupment becomes immediately due (recourse activated). This is the ONLY exception to our otherwise non-recourse treatment.
6. AI-generated personas
Artificial personas (e.g. AI-generated artist avatars) are allowed, provided a real human is behind them who passes KYC and takes responsibility for the account. Sock-puppet accounts without a real beneficial owner = fraud per §1.
7. Reporting + investors
Aggregated fraud statistics are reported quarterly to advance investors (anonymised — no artist names). This is part of our fiduciary duty to those advance investors. Personal data from fraud cases is reviewed + deleted per GDPR retention rules.
8. What we don't do
We don't share a blacklist with other distributors. We don't sell personal fraud data. We don't use fraud suspicion as a pretext for price discrimination. You can request a GDPR audit of fraud signals stored against you at any time.
9. Changes
This manifesto is a self-commitment and may be changed at any time without prior notice. The version currently published on this page is the one that applies.