DMCA Designated Agent Post Office Box Waiver Request Process, 11294-11295 [2020-03260]

Agencies

• Library of Congress
• Copyright Office

[Federal Register Volume 85, Number 39 (Thursday, February 27, 2020)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 11294-11295]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2020-03260]


=======================================================================
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

 Copyright Office

37 CFR Part 201

[Docket No. 2020-3]


DMCA Designated Agent Post Office Box Waiver Request Process

AGENCY: U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress.

ACTION: Final rule.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

SUMMARY: This final rule makes non-substantive technical amendments to 
the U.S. Copyright Office's regulations governing the submission of 
designated agent and service provider information to the Office 
pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (``DMCA'').

DATES: Effective February 27, 2020.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Regan A. Smith, General Counsel and 
Associate Register of Copyrights, by email at [email protected], or 
Mark Gray, Attorney-Advisor, by email at [email protected]. Each can 
be contacted by telephone by calling (202) 707-8350.

[[Page 11295]]


SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Effective December 1, 2016, the Copyright 
Office adopted regulations governing the submission of designated agent 
and service provider information to the Office pursuant to the Digital 
Millennium Copyright Act (``DMCA'') in connection with the 
implementation of an electronic registration system launched the same 
day.\1\ Under that rule, service providers must provide their physical 
street address and may not provide a post office box absent 
``exceptional circumstances (e.g., where there is a demonstrable threat 
to an individual's personal safety or security, such that it may be 
dangerous to publicly publish a street address where such individual 
can be located).'' \2\ Service providers seeking to provide a post 
office box as their address are required to first obtain a waiver of 
the street address requirement from the Copyright Office. To request a 
waiver, a service provider ``must send a signed letter, addressed to 
the [Office],'' that contains, among other things, ``a detailed 
statement providing the reasons supporting the request, with 
explanation of the specific threat(s) to an individual's personal 
safety or security.'' \3\ Upon receipt, the Office evaluates these 
requests to determine whether the circumstances warrant a waiver.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \1\ 81 FR 75695 (Nov. 1, 2016). Technical amendments to these 
regulations were subsequently adopted, effective May 10, 2017. 82 FR 
21696 (May 10, 2017).
    \2\ 37 CFR 201.38(b)(1)(i)-(ii).
    \3\ 37 CFR 201.38(b)(1)(ii).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Based on its experience administering the current waiver system, 
the Office has determined that it is unnecessary to require that waiver 
requests be sent by mail, and that also permitting electronic requests 
to be sent via email would be beneficial both to service providers and 
the Office. Moreover, it would further the goals of the designation 
regulations. Because waiver requests must be approved in advanced of 
being able to designate an agent, the amount of time that passes 
between the service provider submitting its request and the Office 
receiving and acting on the request can impact the service provider's 
safe harbor protection under 17 U.S.C. 512. Thus, it is in everyone's 
best interest that the Office receive these requests as quickly as 
possible. Not only is email a much faster and more efficient method of 
delivery than ordinary mail, but because of the Office's physical 
location within the U.S. Capitol Complex, all mail, including waiver 
requests, undergo mandatory off-site security screening and 
decontamination before arriving at the Offices, which can further delay 
delivery beyond what a service provider might normally anticipate.
    Because this rule only adds an additional, optional method by which 
a request for a waiver may be submitted to the Office, this final rule 
is a non-substantive, procedural change not ``alter[ing] the rights or 
interests of parties,'' and thus is not subject to the notice and 
comment requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act.\4\ 
Furthermore, the Office finds good cause that permitting notice and 
comment would be ``contrary to the public interest'' in this 
instance.\5\ Because this final rule will make it even easier and 
faster for service providers to seek waivers, it is in the public's 
best interest that it take effect without delay. For these same 
reasons, the Office is making this final rule effective immediately 
upon publication in the Federal Register.\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

    \4\ See Nat'l Mining Ass'n v. McCarthy, 758 F.3d 243, 250 (D.C. 
Cir. 2014) (``The critical feature of a procedural rule is that it 
covers agency actions that do not themselves alter the rights or 
interests of parties, although it may alter the manner in which the 
parties present themselves or their viewpoints to the agency.'') 
(internal quotation marks omitted); 5 U.S.C. 553(b) (notice and 
comment not required for ``interpretative rules, general statements 
of policy, or rules of agency organization, procedure, or 
practice'').
    \5\ See 5 U.S.C. 553(b) (notice and comment not required ``when 
the agency for good cause finds . . . that notice and public 
procedure thereon are impracticable, unnecessary, or contrary to the 
public interest'').
    \6\ See id. at 553(d) (``The required publication or service of 
a substantive rule shall be made not less than 30 days before its 
effective date, except--(1) a substantive rule which grants or 
recognizes an exemption or relieves a restriction; (2) 
interpretative rules and statements of policy; or (3) as otherwise 
provided by the agency for good cause found and published with the 
rule.'').
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

List of Subjects in 37 CFR Part 201

    Copyright, General provisions.

Final Regulations

    For the reasons set forth in the preamble, the Copyright Office 
amends 37 CFR part 201 as follows:

PART 201--GENERAL PROVISIONS

0
1. The authority citation for part 201 continues to read as follows:

    Authority:  17 U.S.C. 702.

0
2. Amend Sec.  201.38 as follows:
0
a. Revise paragraph (b)(1)(ii) to read as follows:


Sec.  201.38  Designation of agent to receive notification of claimed 
infringement.

* * * * *
    (b) * * *
    (1) * * *
    (ii) A post office box may not be substituted for the street 
address for the service provider, except in exceptional circumstances 
(e.g., where there is a demonstrable threat to an individual's personal 
safety or security, such that it may be dangerous to publicly publish a 
street address where such individual can be located) and, upon written 
request by the service provider, the Register of Copyrights determines 
that the circumstances warrant a waiver of this requirement. To obtain 
a waiver, the service provider must make a written request submitted 
either by email, to [email protected], or by signed letter, 
addressed to the ``U.S. Copyright Office, Office of the General 
Counsel'' and sent to the address for time-sensitive requests set forth 
in Sec.  201.1(c)(1). Requests must contain the following information: 
The name of the service provider; the post office box address that the 
service provider wishes to use; a detailed statement providing the 
reasons supporting the request, with explanation of the specific 
threat(s) to an individual's personal safety or security; and an email 
address for any responsive correspondence from the Office. There is no 
fee associated with making this request. If the request is approved, 
the service provider may display the post office box address on its 
website and will receive instructions from the Office as to how to 
complete the Office's electronic registration process.

    Dated: February 10, 2020.
Maria Strong,
Acting Register of Copyrights and Director of the U.S. Copyright 
Office.

    Approved by:
Carla D. Hayden,
Librarian of Congress.
[FR Doc. 2020-03260 Filed 2-26-20; 8:45 am]
 BILLING CODE 1410-30-P