APRA is the Australian music copyright organisation (https://www.apraamcos.com.au/)
ECAD is the Brazillian version.
VCPMC is the Vietnamese equivalent.
Not sure about the others, but basically these are the people with whom a composer registers their work. These organisations work together by forwarding royalties collected within each territory to their rightful owners.
I am a member of APRA and very much doubt that someone got away with registering a Beethoven work as their own.
Very curious indeed. I have no explanation.
[Edit] You are only meant to register your work in one territory, so it is odd that this 'work' would be registered in four of them.
I've yet to hear of one of these nationwide registries vetting any of the work that gets submitted to them for novelty or whatever. That would be too much like doing due diligence.
APRA: Australasian Performing Right Association
ECAD: Escritório Central de Arrecadação e Distribuição
SOCAN: Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada
VCPMC: Vietnam Center for Protection of Music Copyright
CS stands for collections society. In another age CS would stand for the Mafia.
All but ECAD were found from here: https://www.cisac.org/
They collect royalties on behalf of the composers. If the composer has a publisher, the royalties are forwarded there instead (so the publisher can take their contractual cut).
They are the only way to protect your work if you are unsigned (think struggling artists).
Maybe I'm wrong ... counter evidence welcomed.
- APRA_CS
- ECAD_CS
- SOCAN
- VCPMC_CS