---
title: "Routes, rights positions and \"not checked\""
description: "A TrackForge rating's scope is set by collecting route, not by territory: PRS, MCPS, ICE, The MLC, PPL and SoundExchange. Each rights position is surveyed on its own, and a route no source could answer for is reported as not checked, with its reason."
image: "https://trackforge.studio/docs/img/trackforge-social-card.png"
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://trackforge.studio/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Routes, rights positions and "not checked"

:::caution[Draft rule book, not yet calibrated]
The materiality threshold and the age limits are starting values in the draft rule book v2.4; the [method statement](/docs/certification/rating/method-statement) describes how they apply.
:::

## Scope is set by collecting route

The rating does not ask "is this work registered everywhere in the world?". It asks whether the work is registered at each **collecting route**: a society or collective that collects money for the owner and pays it out. The routes in scope are:

| Route | Right collected | Note |
|---|---|---|
| PRS for Music | Performing | Includes overseas performance income reaching a member through reciprocal agreements |
| MCPS | Mechanical (digital and physical) | |
| ICE | Performing and digital mechanical | The registration hub for PRS and MCPS |
| The MLC | Digital mechanical, United States | |
| PPL | Neighbouring rights | Includes PPL reciprocals |
| SoundExchange | Neighbouring rights, United States | |

Out of scope, for example: a direct membership of another society, income collected abroad by a sub-publisher, and mechanicals outside The MLC. A work registered at a society outside the in-scope routes is listed as an opportunity, never scored.

Some sources tell the survey that a work **exists** and who is attached to it without saying anything about a route's registration state: CIS-Net, the ASCAP bulk data and the US Copyright Office. They are sources for identity and title; they are not routes, and they never set a registration state.

## Primary routes and materiality

Each rights type has primary routes: for a composition, The MLC; for a sound recording, PPL and SoundExchange. Whenever a catalogue shows use in one of a primary route's channels, that route must be in scope for a letter to issue.

The declared channel mix says how much of the catalogue's income each route is expected to carry. A route whose expected share is below the rule book's materiality threshold is **immaterial**: its defects are still found, listed and valued, but it never caps the letter. The tuple discloses each route's share and whether it is material, with the reason.

## Rights positions, one survey each

The owner declares the rights positions they hold, by class:

- **Composition**: performing, mechanical digital, mechanical physical, sync.
- **Sound recording**: neighbouring, master distribution.

One survey covers one position class, never a mixed denominator: a publishing survey and a recording survey of the same catalogue are two surveys. A position the owner does not hold on a work is **not a defect**; the work has no survey for that class and the component is not applicable there.

## What "not checked" means

A route or component is reported as **not checked** (in the rule book, unverified) when no source could answer, and only then. The reason is always recorded, and it is one of a fixed list:

| Reason | Who | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Not supplied | The client | The client has not supplied the evidence that would answer, such as a society export, a statement or an agreement |
| Too recent to appear | The society | The release is newer than the society's record has caught up with |
| Waiting for the society to publish it | The society | The registration is in the society's queue and not yet published |
| Not reached in this run | TrackForge | TrackForge's run did not read the work at this source: it stopped short, or never read this code there |
| Source could not be read | TrackForge | TrackForge could not read the source, or the source did not say whose the work is |
| Reading past its age limit | TrackForge | Every reading that could decide is older than the age limit for that kind of evidence |

Not checked is never a choice made to improve a score: the attestation fixes the population before any lookup runs. A not-checked work is left out of the component's numerator and denominator and shows up in coverage, by weight and by count. A letter is withheld when coverage falls below the minimum, or when a single work carrying a material share of the weight is not checked because evidence was not supplied, it was not reached in the run, or a source could not be read. A rating is not issued while any work at all was not reached in the run.

## Evidence and freshness

Where more than one source can answer for a work at a route, the survey builds one reading per source, dated by when it was true. Sources are ranked per component; two reads of one kind, the newer wins. Fresh readings of different kinds that disagree make a risk row and the higher-ranked reading decides, so a manufactured disagreement cannot hide a defect. A reading older than its route's age limit never decides; when none is fresh the state is not checked, stale. A CWR acknowledgement proves a file entered the society's queue, never a route's registration state. A statement line is dated by its usage period and speaks only to collection. Identity readings do not age: a society's assignment of a work number stands until the society merges it. The age limits are in the [method statement](/docs/certification/rating/method-statement#sources-and-dates).

## Grading scope

A work the owner is recorded on at a route but whose income belongs to someone else under an agreement (for example a work sold on with the owner left on the chain) is not the owner's property to grade. The owner attests a **grading scope** that removes such works from the population before weights are computed, with a listed reason, a named attester, a date and an evidence reference. Excluded works are never scored, and the tuple discloses the scope's hash, each excluded work and reason, and the weight share the excluded works would have carried.

Source: https://trackforge.studio/docs/certification/rating/routes-and-positions/index.mdx