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AUTHORSHIP & PROVENANCE

a note on how this catalog was made

Every composition on this site was written, performed, and recorded by a human songwriter before AI tools entered the workflow. The AI you may hear in the finished recordings is doing one job and one job only: production restyling of pre-existing, human-authored, copyrighted material owned by the writer.

This page exists to document that distinction clearly, for publishers, sync supervisors, A&R, licensing partners, and anyone else who needs to understand the chain of title before moving forward. Visit the Original Recordings Page if you need to hear audio references (proof) of human authorship.

The chain of title

 

1. The composition. Lyric, melody, chord structure, and arrangement were written by Russell Sundberg (ASCAP). All songs in this catalog are registered with the United States Copyright Office. The Audio and Lyric submitted to copyright.gov predate the use of any AI production tools on the material.

 

2. The original master recordings. Every song in this catalog exists first as a human-performed demo — tracked by the writer in a home studio, with human vocal performances, human instrumental performances, and human production decisions. These original masters are archived and available on request as provenance.

 

3. The restyled versions. What you hear on the catalog page are production restyles of the writer's own copyrighted compositions, created using AI production enhancement tools as a mixing and arrangement aid to create genre specific depictions. The lyric, melody, chord structure, and arrangement are unchanged from the human-authored source. The restyle generates a new production sound — not a new song.

What AI did, and what it did not do

 

AI did not:

  • Write any lyric, melody, chord progression, or arrangement in this catalog

  • Generate any composition on this site from scratch or from a text prompt

  • Contribute any copyrightable authorship to any work in the catalog

 

AI did:

  • Restyle the production sound of pre-existing recordings owned by the writer

  • Generate alternate sonic palettes (genre, instrumentation, vocal timbre) for the writer's own material, under the writer's direction

 

 

This is a tool-use distinction, not a co-authorship distinction. In the same way a producer, an engineer, or a plugin processes a writer's song without becoming a co-writer of it, the AI tools used here are production instruments applied to work the writer already owns.

Why this matters to you

 

If you are evaluating this catalog for publishing, sync, artist cuts, or platform training data, the relevant questions are:

  • Is the chain of title clean? Yes. Single writer, 100% ownership, PRO registered, USCO registered.

  • Are the compositions human-authored? Yes. Every song was written and demoed by the human writer before any AI involvement.

  • Are the original human masters available? Yes. Provided on request alongside the restyled versions.

  • Does AI hold any copyright claim on this material? No. AI was used as a production tool on pre-existing copyrighted works owned by the writer, in line with current U.S. Copyright Office guidance on human-authored works.

  • Can this catalog survive due diligence under current and pending AI-authorship legislation? Yes. The human-authorship paper trail predates the tools.

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Documentation available on request

  • USCO copyright registration certificates

  • PRO (ASCAP) work registrations with ISWC numbers

  • Original human-performed demo recordings

  • AI Usage Log (per-song record of what tools were used and in what capacity)

  • Split sheets and work-for-hire agreements for all contributing performers

  • Sample clearance documentation (where applicable) or sample-free attestations​

Contact

For due diligence inquiries, chain-of-title documentation, or to request the original human-performed masters for any composition in the catalog, contact Russell Lee Sundberg — ASCAP writer, 100% catalog owner at info@RLSundberg.com.  For immediate access to the entire catalog fill out the contact form.

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