---
sidebar_position: 1
title: Scope & Legal Positioning
description: What a TrackForge rating certificate asserts, what it does not assert, and the current UK/US jurisdictional scope.
keywords:
  - certification scope
  - legal positioning
  - UK US scope
  - process fidelity
  - rating independence
---

# Scope & Legal Positioning

TrackForge certification is a process-fidelity and evidence-snapshot attestation. It records that a defined methodology was applied to a frozen evidence snapshot and produced the stated rating event at the stated time.

It is not a legal opinion, title guarantee, or promise that no future contradictory evidence can emerge.

## What TrackForge Certifies

Each production rating certificate identifies:

- The rated subject: catalogue, track, or both.
- The AAA-D rating.
- The methodology version and methodology hash.
- The taxonomy version and workflow version.
- The declared jurisdictional scope.
- The snapshot time and run ID.
- Evidence packet hash or rating input hash.
- Merkle root and OpenTimestamps proof state.

The certificate asserts that the rating event was produced under that contract. It does not ask the reader to trust a mutable web page or an undocumented scoring process.

## Current Direct Jurisdictional Scope

The current direct certification scope is **United Kingdom and United States** registration, repertoire, and revenue pathways.

This means TrackForge may assess, where evidence is available and the workflow requires it:

- UK composition pathways including PRS/MCPS-related evidence.
- PRS/SearchWorks WACD agreement binding, including whether works are explicitly tied to client agreements rather than relying on inferred or assumed claim routes.
- Authoritative ISWC coverage and conflicts where they affect work identity or registration resolution.
- US composition pathways including MLC and PRO-related evidence.
- UK and US neighbouring-rights diagnostics where they affect the declared workflow.
- Cross-border consequences of UK/US defects.

The current certificate does **not** directly certify French, German, Japanese, or other non-UK/US society registration state. Future society-specific expansion belongs in roadmap or future methodology-version language until it is implemented, versioned, and anchored.

## What TrackForge Does Not Certify

TrackForge certification does not assert:

1. **Legal ownership** - It does not establish ownership of copyright, neighbouring rights, or any other intellectual property right.
2. **Definitive writer splits** - It does not state that shares are legally settled or dispute-free.
3. **Global society coverage** - It does not claim direct validation of every society outside the declared scope.
4. **Future absence of contradictions** - It does not guarantee that later evidence, transfers, or corrections will not change the state.
5. **Upstream database perfection** - It does not warrant that external source databases are complete or error-free.
6. **Legal advice** - It is not a substitute for formal legal due diligence.

## Process Fidelity

The legal value of a TrackForge certificate is that it is repeatable and independently verifiable. A lawyer or auditor can inspect the methodology artefact, recompute hashes, verify the Merkle proof, and check the OpenTimestamps proof state.

If a later remediation fixes a leakage condition, the correct output is a later rating event. The earlier certificate remains a true record of the earlier snapshot.

## Reliance Posture

Reliance should always be tied to:

- The methodology version.
- The declared scope.
- The proof state.
- Whether the rating is production-certified, pending anchoring, local-only, or withheld.

Pending means pending. Confirmed means confirmed. A certificate should not blur those states.