Copyright Office, Library of Congress July 2005 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Pursuant to the Artists' Rights and Theft Prevention Act of 2005, the Copyright Office is proposing regulations for the preregistration of unpublished works that are being prepared for commercial distribution in classes of works that the Register of Copyrights determines have had a history of pre-release infringement.

The Copyright Office announces public roundtable discussions regarding ``orphan works,'' i.e., copyrighted works whose owners are difficult or even impossible to identify or locate. The Office seeks to address whether there are compelling concerns that merit a legislative, regulatory or other solution, and what type of solution could effectively address these concerns without conflicting with the legitimate interests of authors and right holders. The Office solicited and received written comments on these issues pursuant to a Notice of Inquiry issued earlier this year. See Notice of Inquiry, 70 FR 3739 (Jan. 26, 2005). The Office will now hold roundtable discussions to further address the issues raised and solutions proposed in the written comments.

The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress is publishing the royalty rates for the retransmission of digital over-the-air television broadcast signals by satellite carriers under the statutory license.

The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress is removing its regulations governing the filing of claims to cable, satellite, and DART royalty funds. These claims now are to be filed with the Copyright Royalty Judges pursuant to the Copyright Royalty and Distribution Reform Act of 2004, which became effective on May 31, 2005.