Library of Congress – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Copyright Royalty Judges announce a cost of living adjustment (COLA) of 1.8% in the royalty rates satellite carriers pay for a compulsory license under the Copyright Act. The COLA is based on the change in the Consumer Price Index from October 2018 to October 2019.

The Copyright Royalty Judges announce a cost of living adjustment (COLA) in the royalty rates that commercial and noncommercial noninteractive webcasters pay for eligible transmissions pursuant to the statutory licenses for the public performance of and for the making of ephemeral reproductions of sound recordings.

The U.S. Copyright Office is amending its regulation governing the group registration option for newspapers. Under the current regulation, applicants are required to upload a complete copy of each newspaper issue through the Office's electronic registration system. Applicants may also submit their newspaper issues on microfilm on a voluntary basis (in addition to and at the same time as submitting the required digital files), provided the microfilm is received by December 31, 2019. The microfilm option expires at the end of this year; therefore, today's final rule eliminates the reference to that option.

As directed by the Music Modernization Act, the U.S. Copyright Office is conducting a study to evaluate best practices that the Mechanical Licensing Collective should implement in the following areas: (1) To identify and locate musical work copyright owners and unclaimed accrued royalties held by the collective; (2) to encourage musical work copyright owners to claim the royalties of those owners; and (3) to reduce the incidence of unclaimed royalties. To initiate this effort, the Office is holding a one-day symposium to provide an educational foundation and facilitate public discussion on issues relevant to the study. Following this symposium, the Office will separately issue Notices of Inquiry soliciting written comments and announcing roundtables, both of which will provide opportunities for public input on the Unclaimed Royalties Study.

The Copyright Royalty Judges are publishing for comment proposed regulations governing the rates and terms for the digital performances of sound recordings by certain public radio stations and for the making of ephemeral recordings necessary to facilitate those transmissions for the period commencing January 1, 2021, and ending on December 31, 2025.

The Copyright Royalty Judges (Judges) announce commencement of a proceeding to determine the distribution of digital audio recording technology royalty fees in the 2014 Sound Recordings Fund. The Judges also announce the date by which a party who wishes to participate in this proceeding must file its Petition to Participate and the accompanying filing fee, if applicable.

The Copyright Royalty Judges solicit comments on a motion of Allocation Phase claimants for partial distribution of 2016 and 2017 satellite royalty funds.

The Copyright Royalty Judges (Judges) announce commencement of a proceeding to determine the initial administrative assessment that digital music providers and any significant nonblanket licensees must pay to fund the operations of the Mechanical Licensing Collective. The Judges also set the date by which the Mechanical Licensing Collective and the Digital Licensee Coordinator must, and other eligible participants may, file a Petition to Participate and the accompanying $150 filing fee. A rule relating to the Determination and Allocation of Initial Administrative Assessment to Fund Mechanical Licensing Collective is published elsewhere in this issue of the Federal Register.

As part of its ongoing fee study, the Copyright Office proposes limited revisions to its previously proposed fee schedule relating to document recordation and new prospective group registration options. The proposed modifications would adjust the fee structure for document recordation from a fee formula based on the number of titles to a formula based on the number of works and alternate titles and registration numbers to which a document pertains, and make certain other clarifications. The Office is also noticing its intention to issue fees for its previously-proposed group registration options for short online literary works and for works contained on an album of music. The Office is providing an opportunity to the public to comment on these specific proposed changes before the Office's fee schedule is submitted to Congress.

The Copyright Royalty Judges announce receipt of a notice of intent to audit the 2018 statements of account submitted by commercial webcaster TuneIn, Inc. concerning royalty payments it made pursuant to two statutory licenses.

The U.S. Copyright Office is extending the deadline for the submission of written comments in response to its March 15, 2019, notice announcing the release of a public draft of an update to its administrative manual, the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition.

The U.S. Copyright Office is amending its regulations pertaining to the registration of architectural works. To improve the efficiency of the registration process, and encourage broader participation in the registration system, the final rule will require applicants to submit their claims using an online application, rather than a paper application. Applicants will be required to provide a date of construction, but only if the work was embodied in unpublished plans or drawings on or before December 1, 1990 and if the work was constructed before January 1, 2003. And, applicants will be encouragedbut not requiredto upload a digital copy of their architectural works through the electronic registration system, instead of submitting a physical copy.

The Copyright Royalty Judges solicit comments on a motion for partial distribution of 2017 cable royalty funds.

The Copyright Royalty Judges solicit comments on a motion of Independent Producers Group for partial distribution of 2000-2003 cable royalty funds.

The U.S. Copyright Office is issuing final regulations pursuant to the Musical Works Modernization Act, title I of the Orrin G. Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act. This rule adopts previously issued interim regulations as final. The interim rule amended the Office's prior regulations pertaining to the compulsory license to make and distribute phonorecords of musical works so as to conform the prior regulations to the new law, including with respect to the operation of notices of intention and statements of account. In addition to adopting the interim rule as final, this final rule makes further technical changes to update cross-references to regulations that were recently amended by the Copyright Royalty Judges.

The Copyright Royalty Judges (Judges) propose regulations governing proceedings to determine the reasonableness of and allocate responsibility to fund the operating budget of the Mechanical Licensing Collective authorized by the Music Modernization Act (MMA). The Judges also propose amendments to extant rules as required by the MMA. The Judges solicit comments on the proposed rules.

The Copyright Royalty Judges published a document in the Federal Register of February 12, 2019, concerning allocation of cable royalty funds. The document contained an incorrect reference to satellite royalty funds in the Summary and was missing citations in four footnotes.

The U.S. Copyright Office is modernizing its practices and procedures to increase the efficiency and quality of the registration process. As part of this effort, this final rule establishes a new group registration option for a limited number of unpublished works, replacing the prior accommodation for ``unpublished collections.'' The new group registration option will allow the Office to examine each work for copyrightable authorship, create a more robust record of the claim, and improve the overall efficiency of the registration process. In addition, the final rule makes certain technical amendments to the regulations governing the group registration option for photographs.

The Copyright Royalty Judges announce the allocation of shares of cable and satellite royalty funds for the years 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013 among six claimant groups.

The Copyright Royalty Judges (Judges) announce commencement of a proceeding to determine distribution of 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 royalties deposited with the Copyright Office under the statutory license for secondary transmissions by cable systems. The Judges also set the date by which all parties wishing to participate and share in the distribution of cable retransmission royalties for the years 2014 through 2017 must file a Petition to Participate and the accompanying $150 filing fee, if applicable. The Judges seek a single Petition to Participate from any entity intending to participate in the Allocation Phase or the Distribution Phase of this proceeding, or both Phases. ANY PARTY THAT FILED A PETITION TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY OF THE PROCEEDINGS CONSOLIDATED IN THIS PROCEEDING MUST NONETHELESS FILE A PETITION TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS CONSOLIDATED PROCEEDING. ANY PARTY THAT FAILS TO FILE A PETITION TO PARTICIPATE IN THIS CONSOLIDATED PROCEEDING BY THE TIME SET IN THIS NOTICE SHALL NOT BE A PARTICIPANT AT ANY STAGE OF THIS CONSOLIDATED PROCEEDING.

The Copyright Royalty Judges announce their final determination of the rates and terms for making and distributing phonorecords for the period beginning January 1, 2018, and ending on December 31, 2022.

The Copyright Royalty Judges announce receipt of a notice of intent to audit the 2015, 2016, and 2017 statements of account submitted by noncommercial webcaster Educational Media Foundation concerning royalty payments it made pursuant to a statutory license.

The Copyright Royalty Judges announce receipt of a notice of intent to audit the 2015, 2016, and 2017 statements of account submitted by commercial webcaster and eligible small webcaster AccuRadio, LLC concerning royalty payments it made pursuant to two statutory licenses.

The U.S. Copyright Office is announcing receipt of five notices of intent to audit certain statements of account filed by cable operators and a satellite carrier pursuant to the section 111 and 119 statutory licenses.

The U.S. Copyright Office is amending its regulations to update the eligibility requirements for its application forms to reflect recent technical updates. The final rule clarifies that the Single Application may be used to register one work that is created and solely owned by one author and is not a work made for hire. It also confirms that this application may be used to register one sound recording and one musical work, literary work, or dramatic work, notwithstanding the fact that a sound recording and the work embodied in that recording are separate works. The final rule further clarifies the eligibility requirements for the Standard Application, which may be used to register certain works that are not eligible for the Single Application. It updates the eligibility requirements for the paper applications of both the Single Application and Standard Application by clarifying that these forms may be certified with a typed, printed, or handwritten signature, and by eliminating the ``short form'' version of these forms. The rule also makes several technical amendments to the regulations governing preregistration, mask works, vessel designs, the unit of publication registration option, and the group registration option for database updates.