Enter to open, tab to navigate, enter to select
Copyright Office Adopts Final Rule and Seeks Public Comment on Notice and Recordkeeping for Use of Sound Recordings Under Statutory Licenses
Practical Law Legal Update 0-567-0546 (Approx. 3 pages)
Copyright Office Adopts Final Rule and Seeks Public Comment on Notice and Recordkeeping for Use of Sound Recordings Under Statutory Licenses
by Practical Law Intellectual Property & Technology
| Published on 05 May 2014 • USA (National/Federal) |
The US Copyright Office has adopted a final rule, and seeks comment on proposed amendments to its regulations, on the notice and recordkeeping for use of sound recordings under the statutory licenses under Sections 112 and 114 of the Copyright Act.
On May 2, 2014, the US Copyright Office issued two notices involving its regulations for filing notice and delivering records of use of sound recordings for the statutory licenses under Sections 112 and 114 of the Copyright Act (79 Fed. Reg. 25009-02 and see 17 U.S.C. §§ 112, 114(f)):
- A final rule affirming the effectiveness of the final regulation issued October 13, 2009. The Copyright Office reviewed the comments underlying the final rule and affirmed its adoption in light of the 2012 US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit decision in Intercollegiate Broadcasting System, Inc. v. Copyright Royalty Board (684 F.3d 1332 (D.C. Cir. 2012)).
- A notice of proposed rulemaking seeking comments on two petitions seeking amendments to these regulations (79 Fed. Reg. 25038-01).
The first of these petitions, filed by College Broadcasters, Inc. CBI, American Council on Education and Intercollegiate Broadcasting Systems, Inc., seeks an amendment to clarify that a provision in the final regulation that exempts minimum-fee webcasters that are FCC-licensed broadcasters from census reporting also applies to minimum-fee unlicensed educational stations.
A second petition, filed by SoundExchange, proposes amendments in several areas of the current regulations:
- Reporting, matching and consolidation, to enable SoundExchange to easily identify the relationship between payment and usage.
- Reporting format flexibility, including to encourage electronic reporting.
- Facilitating unambiguous identification of recordings.
- Reporting non-payable tracks.
- Late or never-delivered reports of use
- Filing corrected reports and statements.
- Recordkeeping requirements.
Comments are due no later than June 30, 2014 and reply comments are due no later than August 11, 2014.
Update: On August 4, 2014, the Copyright Royalty Board extended the reply comment period to September 5, 2014.