Copyright Office Fees, 18742-18748 [2012-7428]

Agencies

• Library of Congress
• Copyright Office

[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 60 (Wednesday, March 28, 2012)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 18742-18748]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-7428]


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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Copyright Office

37 CFR Parts 201 and 203

[Docket No. 2012-1]


Copyright Office Fees

AGENCY: Copyright Office, Library of Congress.

ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking.

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SUMMARY: The Copyright Office is proposing the adoption of new fees for 
the registration of claims, recordation of documents, special services, 
Licensing Division services, and processing of FOIA requests. The 
proposed fees would recover a significant part of the costs to the 
Office for services that benefit both copyright owners and the public, 
and provide full cost recovery for many services which benefit only or 
primarily the user of that service. As part of the fee setting process, 
the Office is providing an opportunity to the public to comment on the 
proposed changes before submitting the fee schedule to Congress for 
review.

DATES: Comments must be received in the Office of the General Counsel 
of the Copyright Office no later than May 14, 2012.

ADDRESSES: The Copyright Office strongly prefers that comments be 
submitted electronically. A comment page containing a comment form is 
posted on the Copyright Office Web site at https://www.copyright.gov/docs/newfees/comments/. The Web site interface requires submitters to 
complete a form specifying name and organization, as applicable, and to 
upload comments as an attachment via a browse button. To meet 
accessibility standards, all comments must be uploaded in a single file 
not to exceed six megabytes (MB) in one of the following formats: The 
Adobe Portable Document File (PDF) format that contains searchable, 
accessible text (not an image); Microsoft Word; WordPerfect; Rich Text 
Format (RTF); or ASCII text file format (not a scanned document). The 
form and face of the comments must include both the name of the 
submitter and the organization. All comments will be posted publicly on 
the Copyright Office Web site exactly as they are received, along with 
names and organizations. If electronic submission of comments is not 
feasible, please contact the Copyright Office at (202) 707-8380 for 
special instructions.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Megan Rivet, Budget Analyst, or Tanya 
Sandros, Deputy General Counsel, at (202) 707-8380.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The Copyright Act (the ``Copyright Act'' or 
``Act'') provides that the Register of Copyrights may, by regulation, 
adjust fees for certain, enumerated services based upon a study of 
costs incurred by the Copyright Office. The study must consider the 
timing of any adjustment as well as the authority to use such fees 
consistent with the budget. The Register's proposed changes are subject 
to review by Congress. However, the Register may implement the changes 
at the end of 120 days after submitting them to Congress in conjunction 
with an economic analysis unless, within that 120 day period, Congress 
enacts a law stating in substance that Congress does not approve the 
schedule. The Act further authorizes the Register to establish fees for 
services that are not enumerated in the statute, including, for 
example, the cost of preparing copies of Copyright Office records, 
based on the cost of providing the service. The Register is not 
required to submit these additional fees to Congress. See 17 U.S.C. 
708(a)-(b).
    Congress amended the Copyright Act in 1997 to allow the Register to 
set fees for Copyright Office services. Since this time, the Office has 
undertaken a fee study approximately every three years; the last one 
was undertaken in 2008 and implemented in 2009. See 74 FR 32805 (July 
9, 2009). A new fee study was initiated on October 1, 2011 at the

[[Page 18743]]

direction of the newly appointed Register of Copyrights. The study was 
identified in the Register's public report, ``Priorities and Special 
Projects for the United States Copyright Office'' as a key project for 
fiscal year 2012. See https://www.copyright.gov/docs/priorities.pdf. In 
executing the study, the Office is acutely aware of its fiscal 
responsibilities as an agency of the federal government, including the 
responsibility to set sound monetary policies and develop a budget 
derived primarily from fees for services. However, the Office is also 
deeply cognizant of its responsibility to authors and other copyright 
owners, and to users of copyrighted works, to price services in a 
manner that encourages participation in the Nation's registration and 
recordation systems and ensures a robust database of copyright 
information for purposes of commerce and the public good. Indeed, the 
Copyright Act requires that fees ``shall be fair and equitable and give 
due consideration to the objectives of the copyright system.'' 17 
U.S.C. 708(b)(4).
    The Register may not adjust fees more than that necessary to cover 
the reasonable costs incurred by the Copyright Office for its services 
plus a reasonable inflation adjustment to account for any estimated 
increase in costs. In fact, the Office's fees have not historically 
recovered full costs for all services. When fees were adjusted in 2009, 
the Office was recovering approximately 61.4% of its costs for 
services. In fiscal year 2011, fee receipts covered only 59.5% of the 
Office's costs, a recovery rate that is insufficient by any standard.
    In the study at hand, the Office has calculated its true costs 
using a traditional methodology. The cost study uses an activity based 
costing methodology to calculate full costs of each Copyright Office 
service. The study includes a review of both direct and indirect costs 
associated with fee services in fiscal 2011. Most copyright activities 
are labor intensive and staff costs are tracked for each of the various 
fee services. The study requires directly assigning non-personnel costs 
that are associated with just one fee service. Once direct costs were 
applied, administrative and indirect costs related to fee services were 
allocated proportionately. The Office also considered statutory fee 
setting requirements, economic factors, and the objectives of the 
copyright system in arriving at the proposed fees.
    The Office also sought comments from the public in a Notice of 
Inquiry published on January 24, 2012 on two specific issues: (1) 
Whether special consideration should be provided to individual author-
claimants registering a single work, and (2) the identification of any 
special services and corresponding fees the Office should expand, 
improve or add to its offerings at this time, including, for example, 
additional expedited services and fee options. 77 FR 3506 (January 24, 
2012). The proposed fee schedule published today reflects the public's 
comments on these issues.
    The Office also acknowledges that commenters offered many 
additional interesting proposals that we appreciate but will not 
address today in the context of this fee study. Many of these proposals 
are not ready for action because the Office is considering them in the 
context of other major projects that are technical or legal in nature. 
Such proposals include, for example, the question of whether 
photographers may pay a flat fee for registration of photographs in the 
context of a business to business submission model; the question of 
whether copyright registration certificates and/or recorded documents 
can be made available online for free; and the question of whether the 
Office should accept deposits of works in electronic formats that may 
be insufficient for the Library's ``best edition'' requirement. The 
Office greatly appreciates these issues and suggestions and it will 
continue to consider them outside of this fee study.
    The purpose of this Notice of Proposed Rulemaking is to offer the 
public an opportunity to comment on the Register's proposed fee 
adjustments, all of which would be implemented early in fiscal year 
2013.

I. Registration, Recordation, and Related Service Fees

    1. Basic registration. The Office will soon eliminate Form CO and 
will offer two options for filing basic registrations beginning this 
summer: online filings and the traditional paper application. See 76 FR 
60774 (September 30, 2011). The Office receives approximately 87% of 
new copyright claims electronically through its online filing system. 
Such filings are far less costly to process. Nevertheless, the Office 
understands that some claimants have good reasons for preferring paper 
forms, despite the higher cost to the claimant, and the Office will 
continue to offer this option. However, the Office will continue to 
charge a higher fee for filing a claim using a paper application to 
encourage the use of the online filing option. Online filing is the 
option that is most efficient to the Office as well as the claimant. On 
average, a claimant who files an application online will receive a 
registration (or a denial of a registration) within 3 months, while a 
claimant filing with paper forms will wait about 10 months.
    The Office is also proposing to offer a reduced fee to a single 
author who is also the claimant for the online filing of a claim in a 
single work that is not a work made for hire, for the policy reasons 
discussed below and after considering the comments received from the 
public in response to the January 24, 2012 Notice of Inquiry. The 
Copyright Office is committed to maintaining an affordable copyright 
registration system. No author or copyright owner should be deterred 
from registering a copyright because the cost of registration is too 
high, and the Office is mindful that there is not endless elasticity in 
pricing; pricing is a factor in whether one chooses to register. Many 
of the works that come from independent creators are critical to the 
Nation's economy and the Library of Congress' mint record and 
collection of American creativity. The copyright law itself is designed 
to promote and protect authorship and this includes facilitating 
registration for the establishment of a public record of copyright 
claims and to enable the copyright owner to seek all the remedies 
available in the Copyright Act. Similarly, users of copyrighted works 
rely on the Copyright Office registration records to identify copyright 
owners when they require licenses. If individual authors do not 
register and are therefore not part of the public database, they more 
than any other group of copyright owners may be difficult to find.
    Commenters to the Notice of Inquiry support a separate and lower 
fee for single authors. They note, as did the Office, that such 
applications are easier to process; that registration provides 
important remedies for the author; and that registration benefits the 
public by creating a more robust public record.
    The Office therefore sees a clear benefit to offering a lower fee 
to these claimants as an incentive to register their works. The details 
for filing such a claim will be fully set forth in a separate notice of 
proposed rulemaking later this year.
    In setting the fees for basic registration, the Office closely 
examined its costs and recent success in recovering them. In fiscal 
year 2011, the Office recovered only 64% of its cost to process an 
online claim and only 58% of its cost to process paper applications. In 
light of these figures, the Office proposes increasing fees for both 
options for filing claims in order to recover a larger percentage of 
the Office's cost, but at levels that will still

[[Page 18744]]

encourage copyright owners to register their works. As mentioned above, 
elasticity is an important consideration in setting fees. Copyright 
registration is a voluntary system, not required by law, and pricing 
that is unaffordable or which exceeds the reasonable expectation of a 
copyright owner will discourage or prevent participation in the 
system--to the public's detriment.
    At this time, the Office proposes raising the fee for an online 
claim from $35 to $65 and the fee for filing a claim using a paper 
application from $65 to $100, but adopting a new fee of $45 for single 
authors filing an online claim for a single work that is not a work 
made for hire. As specified in the chart at the end of this document, 
the Office is also proposing to raise the registration fees for group 
registrations, mask works, and vessel hulls based upon the principles 
discussed above in order to recover a greater percentage of the basic 
costs for processing these claims.
    2. Renewals. The Office is proposing a reduction in the fee for 
filing a renewal claim from $115 to $100. Renewal registration was 
required in the 28th year for works published or registered prior to 
1978. The law no longer requires registration for the renewal term to 
vest. Renewal registration primarily serves those parties who need a 
certificate of registration for various commercial purposes. The cost 
study reveals that the actual cost of processing these claims is quite 
high. To set a fee to recover full cost would be prohibitive and negate 
the goals of the Office in encouraging registration of these older 
claims, many of which may still be commercially viable, and 
incorporating these claims into the public record. Similarly, the 
Office is proposing to reduce the fee for filing a Renewal Addendum, 
the necessary filing for renewal when basic registration for the work 
was not made during the original term, from $220 to $100 to avoid 
deterring these registrations.
    3. Recordation. As outlined in the Register's Priorities and 
Special Projects document, the Office will reengineer the business 
processes for its recordation services, which allow copyright owners 
and other people to publicly record in the Copyright Office certain 
documents related to copyright interests, including, for example, 
assignments, licenses, mortgages and wills. There are some legal 
benefits to recording these documents but it is not required by law. 
The Office has begun discussions with stakeholders on topics including 
searchability and the feasibility of connecting to privately held 
records and databases, among others, and a plan will be finalized in 
the next 18 months. However, as of this writing, the Office is 
accepting paper submissions and, through a limited pilot, filings 
submitted on flashsticks. In either case, the basic cost of accepting, 
reviewing, indexing and recording a document, especially documents that 
are hundreds of pages long and have multiple titles, has not been 
recovered in recent years. For this reason, the Office is proposing an 
increase in the basic recordation fee from $105 to $120 and a slight 
increase in the fee for processing documents with multiple titles from 
$30 to $35 to approach full cost recovery.
    4. Other related services. Other services including, for example, a 
receipt for a deposit under section 407 of the Act and certification of 
Copyright Office records, primarily benefit only the user of that 
service. In these instances, no overriding principles of public policy 
dictate the recovery of less than the direct cost of providing the 
service. This approach is supported by the Office of Management and 
Budget's guidance to Federal agencies on approaches to establishing 
fees for services, which states: ``It is the objective of the United 
States government to * * * promote efficient allocation of the Nation's 
resources by establishing charges for special benefits provided to the 
recipient that are at least as great as costs to the Government of 
providing the special benefits.'' See OMB Circular No. A-25 Revised at 
https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars_a025. The Office is therefore 
proposing to increase its fees for optional services and for services 
that are for personal or commercial purposes to recover fully its 
direct costs in most instances. One major exception is the fee for 
reference search reports, for which the Office proposes to increase 
fees but to recover only partial costs.
    Historically, the fees for a reference search report have recovered 
only a small portion of the costs of the service. The Office concludes 
that it cannot set a fee at full cost recovery as a practical matter 
because the cost would be too high and it would be far out of the range 
of fees charged by private-sector providers of this service. A very 
high fee would prejudice requestors who, for legal reasons, need their 
searches prepared and certified by the Copyright Office. Therefore, the 
Office has adjusted its fees for reference search reports upward to 
recover more but not all of its direct costs for the service. The 
proposed fee is a $400 minimum with an additional fee of $200 for every 
hour after the first two hours.

II. Service Fees

    The Copyright Office provides a number of services not enumerated 
in the Copyright Act and, as stated above, the Register has statutory 
authority to establish fees for such services. These include fees for 
expedited service (``special handling''), secure test processing, 
requests to reconsider rejections of claims, and fees for reproducing 
Copyright Office records, among others. The proposed fees reflect the 
costs of providing these services, Office-wide cost recovery, and 
policy considerations. Many cost adjustments reflect inflationary 
increases for the service. In other cases, the fees have not been 
adjusted, e.g., basic photocopying costs; or costs have decreased and 
the fees have been lowered, e.g., copying to CDs or DVDs. While this 
notice will not discuss proposed adjustments to fees that are set to 
recover costs or account for inflation, the Office believes further 
clarification is useful to understand the change in the fee schedule 
for the following services:
    1. Expedited handling. The Office offers expedited services for 
processing claims; recording documents; searching, retrieving and 
copying Copyright Office records; and certifying registrations and 
other documents in an advanced timeframe. The proposed fees for these 
services will increase slightly to capture increased costs due to 
inflation. These fees continue to reflect the cost of the service, plus 
a premium payment that reflects the value of the expedited service to 
the customer and the disruption to the Office's regular statutory 
services.
    In reviewing the fees for expedited services, the Office considered 
comments it received in response to the January 24, 2012 Notice of 
Inquiry as to whether the Office should offer additional services for 
expedited handling of claims that do not fit into the current 
categories for ``Special Handling.'' Historically Special Handling has 
been limited to cases where a compelling need for the service exists 
due to pending or prospective litigation, customs matters, or contracts 
or publishing deadlines that necessitate the expedited issuance of a 
certificate of registration. One suggestion was to drop the 
``compelling need'' requirement for special handling and to offer a 
tiered fee schedule for special handling based on the turnaround time 
for processing the claim. The Office believes the concept of expedited 
services warrants further analysis and it will publish a separate 
public notice to address the issues fully. A decision on this issue, 
however, will not affect the fee for the service in the

[[Page 18745]]

near future. The Office also considered the suggestion to adopt a 
tiered system for handling expedited claims, an option it will continue 
to consider but will not implement at this point in time, in part due 
to limited resources.
    2. Secure test processing. The Office offers a special service for 
inspecting deposits of secure tests. The Office provides a private 
review of the full deposit of a secure test and compares it with the 
accompanying identifying material that does not disclose secret 
materials. The review process may include one or more staff depending 
on the number of claims being processed at any one time. For this 
reason, the proposed fee for this labor intensive service reflects an 
upward adjustment based on the processing cost to the Office and the 
number of staff doing the review; as such, the Office proposes a $250 
fee per staff member per hour.
    3. Requests for reconsideration of rejections of claims. A claimant 
whose work is rejected for registration may request reconsideration of 
its claim through a two-tiered administrative process. A staff attorney 
in the Registration Program who is not involved in the initial review 
of the claim handles the first request for reconsideration. If the work 
is not registered at this stage, the claimant may make a second request 
for reconsideration. Second requests are considered by the Review Board 
consisting of the Register of Copyrights, the General Counsel, and the 
Associate Register for the Registration Program or their qualified 
delegates. The fees for the first and second reconsideration of a 
single claim are not scheduled for change, in part because the Office 
recognizes that an increase in fees may prohibit a claimant from 
pursuing subsequent review. However, the Office is eliminating its 
practice of allowing the joinder of multiple related claims into a 
single request for reconsideration because there is no reduced cost in 
processing such claims, each of which must be analyzed separately. 
Instead, the fee for a request for reconsideration will cover only the 
works in a single original claim for registration.

III. Licensing Fees

    The Licensing Division of the Copyright Office is responsible for 
administering various aspects of the statutory licenses set forth in 
sections 111-122 of the Copyright Act, including the processing of the 
statements of account filed along with royalties for use of the cable 
and satellite statutory licenses in accordance with sections 111 and 
119, respectively. The Licensing Division also receives quarterly 
statements of account and royalties from companies that import and 
distribute or manufacture and distribute digital audio recording 
devices and media pursuant to Chapter 10 of the Act. In addition, this 
division accepts for recordation certain contracts and licensing 
agreements, notices of intent to use the statutory licenses in sections 
112 and 114, and notices of intent to use musical works pursuant to the 
section 115 compulsory license, and it provides search and copying 
services to the public. Proposed fees are based either on a separate 
cost study related to the budget and expenditures of the Licensing 
Division or, in the case where the Licensing Division offers services 
that parallel other services in the Copyright Office, fees are based on 
the cost study covering the Copyright Office services. Fees which are 
being established for the first time are more fully explained below:
    1. Filing fee for Cable and Satellite Statements of Account. In 
2010, Congress enacted the Satellite Television Extension and Localism 
Act (``STELA'') which, for the first time, granted authority to the 
Office to set fees for filing cable and satellite statements of 
account. Prior to 2010, the cost of processing the statements was 
covered completely by the royalty fees collected under the statutory 
licenses for the benefit of the copyright owners. STELA allows the 
Office to apportion the cost of processing the statements of account 
equally between the copyright owners and the statutory licensees. 
According to section 708(a), fees ``shall be reasonable and may not 
exceed one-half of the cost necessary to cover reasonable expenses 
incurred by the Copyright Office for the collection and administration 
of the statements of account and any royalty fees deposited with such 
statements.''
    In conducting its cost study, the Office took into account the 
reengineering efforts of the Licensing Division (the purpose of which 
is to develop an online filing system) and the equities associated with 
apportioning costs fairly among the licensees. Consequently, the Office 
is proposing a three-tiered fee schedule that corresponds to the filing 
of the different types of cable statements of account. The fee for 
licensees who file a SA1 form and currently pay only $52 each 
accounting period is set at $15, the low end of the scale; whereas the 
fee for cable systems filing the SA2 form is set slightly higher at $20 
because of the review of the basic calculation of the royalty fee for 
this group. Licensees who file the more complicated cable statements of 
account, the SA3 form, necessarily are expected to pay a 
correspondingly higher fee because of the time associated with 
reviewing the information on the forms, especially the classification 
of community groups and television stations. Thus, the proposed fee for 
filing the SA3 form is set at $500. Overall, these fees represent 
approximately one-half the cost on average of processing the current 
filings. The Office also recognizes that the proposed fees account for 
certain reengineering costs that may decline over time. Consequently, 
the Office anticipates initiating another targeted cost study after it 
has gained experience with the new electronic filing system.
    The new fee schedule also includes a $75 filing fee for a satellite 
statement of account. In this case, there is a single statement of 
account applicable to all satellite carriers and a single fee for 
filing that statement. The filing fee of $75 is set at this level 
because the forms require some examination beyond that afforded to the 
SA1 and SA2 forms filed by cable operators, but they do not require the 
particularized examination that is afforded to the complex Form SA3 
cable statement of account. As with the filing fees for the cable 
statements of account, the filing fee for the satellite statement of 
account represents no more than half the cost of processing this form.
    2. Fee for filing Notices of Intention to Make and Distribute 
Phonorecords electronically. The Office accepts Notices of Intention to 
Obtain a Compulsory License for use of the statutory license to make 
and distribute phonorecords when the notice cannot be served on the 
copyright owner or when the Copyright Office records do not include the 
name and address of the copyright owner. Historically, this statutory 
license was used to obtain the rights to use a particular musical work 
to make a cover record, and the Office received very few such notices.
    The advent of the digital age, however, changed the law and how 
businesses utilize the section 115 license. Today, the license is 
viewed as an acceptable way to license the reproduction and electronic 
distribution of the musical work embedded in a digital phonorecord. 
Consequently, the use of the license has expanded exponentially and the 
Office has responded by investing in the development of an online 
filing system. The Office is optimistic that the first iteration of the 
online filing system will be operational at the time the proposed fees 
become final. In anticipation of that day, the Office has undertaken a 
cost study to determine a basic filing fee and the costs for additional 
titles for an

[[Page 18746]]

electronic notice which, based on recent experience and the comments to 
the Office's earlier Notice of Inquiry regarding additional services 
and fees, can include tens of thousands of titles. Based on this cost 
study, the Office is proposing to set the fee at $75 for each Notice 
with a single title. Notices with additional titles will incur an 
additional $20 fee per ten titles for a paper submission and an 
additional $10 fee per hundred titles for an online submission (which 
works out to $0.10 per additional title). In light of the low proposed 
fee for additional titles for filing a Notice online, the Office does 
not see a need to consider a cap on the total fees for any one Notice 
filed in this manner as suggested in a comment to the Office's January 
24, 2012 Notice of Inquiry. As with the filing fees for the cable and 
satellite statements of account, the Office will reevaluate the fees 
for electronic filings in the future after gaining experience with the 
systems and the related costs.

IV. FOIA Fees

    The Copyright Office last adjusted its fees for services associated 
with the Freedom of Information Act in 1999. See 64 FR 29518 (June 1, 
1999). Fees are set in accordance with the guidelines established by 
the Office of Management and Budget in accordance with the OMB Uniform 
Freedom of Information Act Fee Schedule and Guidelines. 52 FR 10,012 
(March 27, 1987). Currently, the Office has an hourly search fee of $65 
for entities other than educational institutions, non-commercial 
scientific institutions, and representatives of the news media which 
mirrored the fee for searching Copyright Office records in 1999 when 
the fee was revised. Today's proposed increase in the FOIA fee schedule 
brings this and other FOIA fees up to date.
    The OMB guidelines allow agencies to recoup the full allowable 
direct costs they incur and provide that separate rates may be 
established for searching the records and reviewing responsive records 
to determine, e.g., the applicability of an exemption. In both cases, 
where a single class of reviewers is typically involved in providing 
the service, agencies may establish a reasonable agency-wide average 
fee. Accordingly, the Office proposes adoption of a two-tiered fee 
structure for searches to reflect the direct costs of the service 
depending upon the level of the personnel conducting the search. The 
proposed fee for a search based on a FOIA request is set at $15 for the 
first half hour and $7.50 for each additional 15 minutes if conducted 
by administrative staff, and $35 for the first half hour and $17.50 for 
each additional 15 minutes if conducted by professional staff. 
Similarly, the Office is proposing to adopt new fees for reviewing the 
documents at the same rates as those proposed for a FOIA search. 
However, the fees for reviewing the documents will be based on 15 
minute units and without a minimum fee. In addition, the Office is 
proposing to remove the separate fee for a copy of a certificate of 
copyright registration and the separate fee for certification services, 
currently listed in Sec. Sec.  203.6(b)(1) and (4), respectively. The 
OMB guidelines state that such services are not covered by FOIA or its 
fee structure and that an agency should recover the full costs of such 
services. Therefore, the Office proposes that the FOIA fees for these 
services should be the same as the Copyright Office fees for these same 
services listed in the proposed schedule.

V. Schedule of Proposed Fees

    The chart below sets forth the current and proposed fees for 
services related to Registration, Recordation; Special Services; the 
Licensing Division; and FOIA requests.

                        Schedule of Proposed Fees
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                         Current fee    Proposed new fee
------------------------------------------------------------------------
             Registration, Recordation and Related Services
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Registration of a basic claim in
 an original work of authorship:
    Single author, same claimant,                  $35               $45
     one work, not a work made for
     hire, filed electronically.....
    All other claims filed                          35                65
     electronically.................
    Forms PA, SR, TX, VA, SE (paper                 65               100
     filing)........................
(2) Registration of a claim in a                    65               100
 group of contributions to
 periodicals (Form GR/CP), published
 photographs, or database updates
 (paper filing).....................
(3) Registration of a renewal claim
 (Form RE):
    (i) Claim without Addendum......               115               100
    (ii) Addendum (in addition to                  220               100
     the fee for the Claim).........
(4) Registration of a claim in a                    25                35
 group of serials (Form SE/Group)
 [per issue, minimum 2 issues]......
(5) Registration of a claim in a                    80               150
 group of daily newspapers or
 qualified newsletters (Form G/DN)..
(6) Registration of a claim in a                    65               100
 restored copyright (Form GATT).....
(7) Preregistration of certain                     115               140
 unpublished works..................
(8) Registration of a correction or                100               130
 amplification to a claim (Form CA).
(9) Registration of a claim in a                   105               120
 mask work (Form MW)................
(10) Registration of a claim in a                  220               400
 vessel hull (Form D/VH)............
(11) Providing an additional                        35                40
 certificate of registration........
(12) Certification of other                        165               200
 Copyright Office records (per hour)
(13) Search report prepared from                   330               400
 official records (for up to 2
 hours).............................
    (i) Additional hours of                        165               200
     searching (per hour)...........
    (ii) Estimate of search fee.....               115               200
(14) Retrieval of in-process or
 completed Copyright Office records
 or other Copyright Office
 materials:
    (i) Retrieval of paper records                 165               200
     (per hour, 1 hour minimum).....
    (ii) Retrieval of digital                      165               200
     records (per hour, \1/2\ hour
     minimum/quarter hour
     increments)....................
(15) Recordation of document,                      105               120
 including a Notice of Intention to
 Enforce (NIE) (single title).......
    Additional titles (per group of                 30                35
     1 to 10 titles)................
(16) Recordation of an Interim                     105               105
 Designation of Agent to Receive
 Notification of Claimed
 Infringement under Sec.   512(c)(2)
 (OSP)..............................
    Additional names (per group of 1                30                35
     to 10 titles)..................
(17) Issuance of a receipt for a                    30                30
 Sec.   407 deposit.................
------------------------------------------------------------------------

[[Page 18747]]

 
                            Special Services
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Service charge for deposit                     165               250
 account overdraft..................
(2) Service charge for dishonored                   85               100
 deposit account replenishment check
(3) Service charge for an                           25                30
 uncollectible or non-negotiable
 payment............................
(4) Requests for Reconsideration of
 Refusals to Register Claims:
    (i) First Request (per claim)...               250               250
    (ii) Second Request (per claim).               500               500
(5) Secure test processing charge                  165               250
 (per staff member per hour)........
(6) Copying of Copyright Office       ................          variable
 records by staff:..................
    Photocopy (b&w, 8\1/2\ x 11)                  0.50              0.50
     (per page, minimum: $12).......
    Photocopy (b&w, 11 x 17) (per                    1                 1
     page, minimum: $12)............
    Photocopy (color, 8\1/2\ x 11)                   2                 2
     (per page, minimum: $12).......
    Photocopy (color, 11 x 17) (per                  4                 4
     page, minimum: $12)............
    Audiocassette (first 30 minutes)                75                75
    Additional 15 minute increments.                20                20
    Videocassette (first 30 minutes)                75                75
    Additional 15 minute increments.                20                20
    CD or DVD.......................               100                30
    Flash Drive.....................               N/A                30
    Other formats not available in            variable           at cost
     the Copyright Office, dependent
     upon availability of equipment
     and media, at cost from
     provider.......................
(7) Special handling fee for a claim               760               800
    For multiple claims with one                    50                50
     deposit where special handling
     is requested only for a single
     claim, handling fee in addition
     to the basic registration fee
     for each claim using the same
     deposit........................
(8) Special handling fee for                       480               550
 recordation of a document..........
(9) Handling fee of extra deposit                   45                50
 copy for certification.............
(10) Full-term retention of a                      470               540
 published deposit..................
(11) Expedited search report (for up               890             1,000
 to 2 hours)........................
    Additional hours of searching                  445               500
     (per hour).....................
(12) Expedited retrieval,                          265               305
 certification and copying services
 (surcharge, per hour)..............
(13) Notice to Libraries and                        50                50
 Archives...........................
    Each additional title...........                20                20
(14) Service charge for Federal                     40                45
 Express mailing....................
(15) Service charge for delivery of                  1                 1
 documents via facsimile (per page,
 7 page maximum)....................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                                FOIA Fees
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Search of Copyright Office
 records:
    (i) Search prepared by                      \1\ 65              7.50
     administrative staff (per 15
     min., \1/2\\ hour min.)........
    (ii) Search prepared by                     \1\ 65             17.50
     professional staff (per 15 min,
     \1/2\ hour min.)...............
(2) Review of documents:
    (i) Performed by administrative                N/A              7.50
     staff (per 15 min.)............
    (ii) Performed by professional                 N/A             17.50
     staff (15 min.)................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
                       Licensing Division Services
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Processing of a statement of
 account based on secondary
 transmissions of primary
 transmissions pursuant to Sec.
 111:
    (i) Form SA1....................               N/A                15
    (ii) Form SA2...................               N/A                20
    (iii) Form SA3..................               N/A               500
(2) Processing of a statement of                   N/A                75
 account based on secondary
 transmissions of primary
 transmissions pursuant to Sec.
 119 or Sec.   122:.................
(3) Statement of Account Amendment                 100               150
 (Cable Television Systems and
 Satellite Carriers, 17 U.S.C. Sec.
  111, Sec.   119, and Sec.   122;
 Digital Audio Recording Devices or
 Media, 17 U.S.C. Sec.   1003)......
(4) Filing fee for recordation of a                140               140
 licensing agreement (17 U.S.C. Sec.
   118).............................
(5) Recordation of a Notice of                      60                75
 Intention to Make and Distribute
 Phonorecords with a single title
 (17 U.S.C. Sec.   115).............
    (i) Additional titles (per group                20                20
     of 1 to 10 titles), paper
     filing.........................
    (ii) Additional titles (per                    N/A                10
     group of 1 to 100 titles),
     online filing..................
(6) Recordation of Certain Contracts                50                50
 by Cable TV Systems Located Outside
 the 48 Contiguous States...........
(7) Section 112/114, Notice of                      25                40
 Digital Transmission of Sound
 Recording..........................
    Amended Notice of Digital                       25                40
     Transmission of Sound Recording
(8) Photocopy of Licensing record by              0.50              0.50
 staff (b&w) (per page) [minimum:
 $12]...............................
(9) Search report prepared from                    165               200
 Licensing records (per hour).......
(10) Certification of search report                165               200
 (per hour).........................
------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Current fees are based on an hourly rate.


[[Page 18748]]

VI. Technical Amendments

    The Office will adopt technical amendments as needed to conform 
existing regulations to the changes proposed in this notice.

VII. Request for Comments

    The Copyright Office is publishing the proposed new fee schedule to 
provide the public with an opportunity to comment. The Office 
anticipates implementation of the new fees with the beginning of the 
new fiscal year, October 1, 2012.

    Dated: March 21, 2012.
Maria A. Pallante,
Register of Copyrights.
[FR Doc. 2012-7428 Filed 3-27-12; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE P