licensing-brief-writer — independently scanned and version-tracked by SaferSkills.
SaferSkills independently audited licensing-brief-writer (Agent Skill) and scored it 100/100 (green). The audit ran 55 deterministic rules across Security, Supply Chain, Maintenance, Transparency, and Community; it found 0 high-severity and 0 lower-severity findings. The full rule-by-rule trace and per-finding evidence are below. Free, methodology-open.
Findings & checks · 0 flagged
Every scanned point with the score it earned and what moved between them.
First recorded scan — no prior version to compare against.
The primary manifest — the file an agent reads to learn what this artifact does.
Writes a brief summarising the licensing requirements for using a specific piece of music, archive footage, photograph, or other third-party content in a media project — including what licences are needed, who to approach, and what terms to request.
Required: Description of the content (e.g., "a 1967 recording of a jazz standard by a named artist," "30 seconds of archive news footage from the 1990s," "a photograph taken in 1958 by an identified photographer"), your intended use (what the content will be used for and how prominently), and your distribution plan.
Optional: The rights holder or archive you believe owns or controls the content, any existing relationship with the rights holder, your budget range for the licence, whether you need in-perpetuity rights or a fixed term, the territories required.
Brief document: Licensing Summary (100 words — what you want to do and what licences you need), Rights Holder Identification (100 words — who to approach and how), Key Licence Terms to Request (bullet list — territory, duration, platform, exclusivity, fee type), Risks and Considerations (50–100 words). Total 350–500 words. Plain language throughout — written for a producer to understand and act on without a law degree. Output ends with a "Next Step" note: which rights holder to contact first, whether to engage a clearance professional, and whether to run rights-clearance-checklist for the wider project.
Content: 45 seconds of a well-known pop song recorded in 1979 by an internationally famous artist. The recording is recognisable, and the song is used in the film's opening sequence — not in the background, prominently featured. Use: Feature documentary film. The song plays over archive footage from the era of the recording and is central to the emotional register of the opening. Distribution: International theatrical + streaming (global), possible broadcast licence separately. Rights holder: Unknown — I haven't researched who owns this. Budget: Limited — this is an independent documentary.
You intend to use 45 seconds of a recognisable, internationally known pop recording from 1979 prominently in the opening sequence of a feature documentary for international theatrical distribution, global streaming, and possible broadcast. This is a featured sync use — the most expensive category of music licensing. Two separate licences are required: one for the composition (the song itself) and one for the master recording (the 1979 recording specifically).
Composition (sync licence): The song's publisher holds the sync rights. For a major-catalogue song from 1979, this is almost certainly a major music publisher (Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing, Warner Chappell, or a significant independent). Search the song title at PRS for Music (UK), ASCAP/BMI (US), or your national performing rights organisation to identify the registered publisher.
Master recording (master licence): The record label that released the 1979 recording holds the master rights. For a well-known recording from this era, this will likely be a major label (Sony, Universal, Warner) or a catalogue label that acquired the original. If the original label no longer exists, research which company acquired their catalogue.
Approach both simultaneously — the two licences are issued by different organisations and negotiations can proceed in parallel.
Cost: A featured use of a well-known song in a globally distributed documentary is among the most expensive clearances in documentary production. Budget €10,000–€50,000+ per licence (sync + master) as a realistic starting range for major-catalogue music. If the budget cannot support this, consider whether an alternative piece of music could serve the same function.
Refusal: Some rights holders decline to licence music for documentary contexts where the content of the documentary may not align with their preferences. This is more common with music associated with living artists who retain approval rights.
Specialist advice: Given the cost, complexity, and centrality of this use to the film, engaging a music supervisor for this licence — rather than approaching rights holders directly — is strongly recommended.
~30 seconds. Free. No account. Every finding cites a rule and a line of evidence.