Apply these three gates first, and apply them again after scoring:
- Rights gate: hold release of any cohort whose permission for the proposed disclosure or use is unresolved. Ask counsel to define an eligible subset; uncertainty elsewhere need not block harmless catalogue discussions.
- Recipient and use gate: hold content delivery when the contracting entity, intended recipient, evaluation purpose or permitted uses are undefined. An NDA alone is not the release plan used by this framework.
- Commitment gate: hold signature or non-cancellable expenditure when the person approving cannot explain the maximum cash commitment, rights surrendered or exit conditions.
These are recommended internal decision rules, not statutory tests. They prevent a strong commercial score from averaging away a material unresolved issue.
Copyright and copy ownership differ; contributions can have distinct owners under sections 201–202. Employee and commissioned works also require the factual analysis described in Circular 30.