15390 Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 59 / Monday, March 29, 2010 / Proposed Rules 

SUMMARY: In accordance with the 

Federal Advisory Committee Act, the 

Bureau of Indian Affairs is announcing 

that the No Child Left Behind School 

Facilities and Construction Negotiated 

Rulemaking Committee will hold its 

second meeting in Seattle, Washington. 

The purpose of the meeting is to 

continue negotiations to prepare a 

report or reports regarding Bureaufunded school facilities as required 

under the No Child Left Behind Act of 

2001. 

DATES: The Committee’s second meeting 

will begin at 8:30 a.m. on April 12, 

2010, and end at 12 p.m. on April 15, 

2010. 

ADDRESSES: The meeting will be held at 

the Hilton Seattle Airport and 

Conference Center, 17620 International 

Blvd., Seattle, Washington 98188–4001. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: The 

Designated Federal Official, Michele F. 

Singer, Director, Office of Regulatory 

Affairs and Collaborative Action, Office 

of the Assistant Secretary—Indian 

Affairs, 1001 Indian School Road, NW., 

Suite 312, Albuquerque, NM 87104; 

telephone (505) 563–3805; fax (505) 

563–3811. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The No 

Child Left Behind School Facilities and 

Construction Negotiated Rulemaking 

Committee was established to prepare 

and submit a report or reports to the 

Secretary of the Interior setting out: a 

method for creating a catalog of school 

facilities; a list of school replacement 

and new construction needs of the 

interested parties and a formula for 

equitable distribution of funds to 

address those needs; a list of major and 

minor renovation needs of the interested 

parties and a formula for equitable 

distribution of funds to address those 

needs; and facilities standards for homeliving (dormitory) situations. 

The following items will be on the 

agenda: 

• Review of Committee Operating 

Procedures, discussion, and approval; 

• Review of Committee criteria for 

decision-making developed in the 

visioning exercise in January 2010; 

• Overview, review, and discussion 

of key formulas from the FMIS March 

2010 Training; 

• Small group and subcommittee 

work: Dormitory Standards, Catalogue/ 

Inventory, and Formula for Repair and 

Renovation; 

• Report back from subcommittee 

work and discussion; 

• Discussion of programmatic 

requirements and facility issues; 

• Discussion of report outline; 

• Discussion of formula and approach 

to new school construction; 

• Refinement of options for catalogue 

and tentative consensus; 

• Finalization of subcommittees, 

logistics, next steps, and other details; 

• Assessment of the second meeting; 

and 

• Public comments. 

Written comments may be sent to the 

Designated Federal Official listed in the 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT

section above. All meetings are open to 

the public; however, transportation, 

lodging, and meals are the responsibility 

of the participating public. 

Dated: March 22, 2010. 

Larry Echo Hawk, 

Assistant Secretary—Indian Affairs. 

[FR Doc. 2010–7061 Filed 3–26–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 4310–W7–P 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

Copyright Office 

37 CFR Part 201 

Gap in Termination Provisions; Inquiry 

AGENCY: Copyright Office, Library of 

Congress. 

ACTION: Notice of public inquiry; request 

for comments. 

SUMMARY: The Copyright Office is 

seeking comments regarding the 

application of Title 17 to the 

termination of certain grants of transfers 

or licenses of copyright, specifically 

those for which execution of the grant 

occurred prior to January 1, 1978 and 

creation of the work occurred on or after 

January 1, 1978. The Copyright Office is 

seeking comments at this time because 

the deadlines for serving notices of 

termination for 1978 grants will begin to 

expire in 2011 and some stakeholders 

have raised questions with the Office 

and some Congressional Offices. 

DATES: Initial comments on the Notice 

of Inquiry and Requests for Comments 

are due on or before April 30, 2010. 

Reply comments are due on or before 

May 14, 2010. 

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 http://www.copyright.gov/docs/ 

termination. 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 in either 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 maximum file size is 6 

megabytes (MB). The name of the 

submitter and organization should 

appear on both the form and the face of 

the comments. 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 202–707–1027 for 

special instructions. 

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: 

Maria Pallante, Associate Register, 

Policy and International Affairs, by 

telephone at 202–707–1027 or by 

electronic mail at mpall@loc.gov. 

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: 

Background 

The Copyright Act gives authors (and 

some heirs, beneficiaries and 

representatives who are specified by 

statute) the right to terminate certain 

grants of transfers or licenses, subject to 

the passage of time set forth in the 

statute and the execution of certain 

conditions precedent. 

Termination rights (also referred to as 

‘‘recapture rights’’) are equitable 

accommodations under the law. They 

allow authors or their heirs a second 

opportunity to share in the economic 

success of their works. Codified in 

sections 304(c), 304(d) and 203 of Title 

17, respectively, they encompass grants 

made before as well as after January 1, 

1978 (the effective date of the 1976 

Copyright Act). (The provisions do not 

apply to copyrights in works made for 

hire or grants made by will.) 

This inquiry concerns a narrow set of 

facts that some authors and their 

representatives have brought to the 

attention of the Copyright Office and 

some Congressional Offices. 

Specifically, the Office is interested in 

whether or how the termination 

provisions apply in circumstances 

where the grant was executed prior to 

January 1, 1978, but the work was 

created on or after January 1, 1978. For 

such works, there appears to be some 

confusion and possible disagreement 

among some stakeholders as to whether 

termination rights are exercisable in the 

first place and, if they are, which 

statutory provision applies. In seeking 

comments, the Office is aware that 

termination rights may only be 

exercised during the window of time 

specified by statute and the deadlines 


srobinson on DSKHWCL6B1PROD with PROPOSALS
Federal Register / Vol. 75, No. 59 / Monday, March 29, 2010 / Proposed Rules 15391 

1By contrast, the regulations provide 

accommodations for certain harmless errors. 37 CFR 

201.10(e)(1)–(2). 

2 If a document is submitted as a notice of 

termination after the statutory deadline has expired, 

the Office will offer to record the document as a 

‘‘document pertaining to copyright’’ pursuant to 

§ 201.4(c)(3), but the Office will not index the 

document as a notice of termination. Whether a 

document so recorded is sufficient in any instance 

to effect termination as a matter of law shall be 

determined by a court of competent jurisdiction. 

for grants made in 1978 will begin to 

expire next year. 

Termination provisions provide 

authors with a long-term insurance 

policy on the value of their copyrights. 

The House Report accompanying the 

1976 Copyright Act states that the 

provisions are ‘‘needed because of the 

unequal bargaining position of authors, 

resulting in part from the impossibility 

of determining a work’s value until it 

has been exploited.’’ H.R. Rep. No. 94– 

1476, at 124 (1976). Termination rights 

are put in motion by serving notice on 

the grantee. The notice must state the 

effective date of the termination and 

must be served on the grantee not less 

than two or more than ten years before 

that date. 17 U.S.C. 304(c)(4)(A); 

304(d)(1); 203(a)(4)(A). The Register of 

Copyrights, through regulations, has set 

forth additional core elements that must 

be included in the notice, among them 

a statement as to whether termination is 

being made under section 304(c), 304(d) 

or 203. 37 CFR 201.10(b)(1)(i) and 

(b)(2)(ii). 

Section 304 (c) governs older works, 

specifically works in which a copyright 

was subsisting in its first or renewal 

term as of January 1, 1978. It provides 

for termination of the exclusive or 

nonexclusive grant of a transfer or 

license of the renewal copyright (or any 

right under it) executed before January 

1, 1978. Termination may be exercised 

at any time during a five-year period 

beginning at the end of fifty-six years 

from the date copyright was originally 

secured. Section 304(d) governs a 

smaller subset of pre-78 works for 

which the termination right under 

section 304(c) expired (and was not 

exercised) on or before the effective date 

(October 27, 1998) of the ‘‘Sonny Bono 

Copyright Term Extension Act,’’ which 

extended copyright terms by 20 years. It 

provides for termination of the 

exclusive or nonexclusive grant of a 

transfer or license of the renewal 

copyright (or any right under it) at any 

time during a five-year period beginning 

at the end of 75 years from the date 

copyright was originally secured. 

Section 203 governs grants made 

under the ‘‘new law.’’ It provides for 

termination of the exclusive or 

nonexclusive grant of copyright (or any 

right under copyright) executed on or 

after January 1, 1978 (regardless of 

whether the copyright was secured prior 

to or after 1978). Termination may be 

exercised at any time during a period of 

five years beginning at the end of thirtyfive years from the date of publication 

of the work under the grant or at the end 

of forty years from the date of execution 

of the grant, whichever is earlier. Unlike 

section 304, the termination right in 

section 203 applies only to grants 

executed by authors. Section 203 

terminations may be exercised as of 

January 1, 2013, provided notice has 

been served no less than two years 

prior. 

Once the notice is served, a copy of 

the notice must be recorded with the 

Copyright Office prior to the effective 

date of termination. 17 U.S.C. 

304(c)(4)(A); 304(d)(1); 203(a)(4)(A). 

Upon receipt of the notice, the 

Copyright Office undertakes a review of 

certain facts, including whether the 

notice has been executed in a timely 

manner. Because lateness is a fatal 

mistake 1 under the law, the Office 

reserves the right to refuse recordation 

of a notice of termination if, in the 

judgment of the Office, such notice of 

termination is untimely.2 37 CFR 

201.10(f)(4). 

Subject of Inquiry 

The Copyright Office seeks comment 

on the question of whether and how 

Title 17 provides a termination right to 

authors (and other persons specified by 

statute) when the grant was made prior 

to 1978 and the work was created on or 

after January 1, 1978. For purposes of 

illustration, please note the following 

examples: 

Example 1: A composer signed an 

agreement with a music publisher in 1977 

transferring the copyrights to future musical 

compositions pursuant to a negotiated fee 

schedule. She created numerous 

compositions under the agreement between 

1978 and 1983, some of which were 

subsequently published by the publishertransferee. Several of these achieved 

immediate popular success and have been 

economically viable ever since. The original 

contract has not been amended or 

superseded. 

Example 2: A writer signed an agreement 

with a book publisher in 1977 to deliver a 

work of nonfiction. The work was completed 

and delivered on time in 1979 and was 

published in 1980. The book’s initial print 

run sold out slowly, but because the author’s 

subsequent works were critically acclaimed, 

it was released with an updated cover last 

year and is now a best seller. The rights 

remained with the publisher all along and 

the original royalty structure continues to 

apply. 

Questions 

In order to better understand the 

application of sections 304(c), 304(d) 

and 203 to the grants of transfers and 

licenses discussed above, the Copyright 

Office seeks comments as follows: 

A. Experience. Please describe any 

experience you have in exercising or 

negotiating termination rights for pre1978 grants of transfers or licenses for 

works that were created on or after 

January 1, 1978. 

B. Interpretation. Are the grants of 

transfers or licenses discussed above 

terminable under Title 17 as currently 

codified? If so, under which provision? 

What is the basis for your 

determination? Are there state or federal 

laws other than copyright that are 

relevant? Is delivery of the work by the 

grantor to the grantee relevant to the 

question of termination? Is publication 

relevant? 

C. Recommendations. Do you have 

any recommendations with respect to 

the grants of transfers or licenses 

illustrated above? 

D. Other Issues. Are there other issues 

with respect to the application or 

exercise of termination provisions that 

you would like to bring to our attention 

for future consideration? 

Dated: March 24, 2010. 

Marybeth Peters, 

Register of Copyrights, U.S. Copyright Office. 

[FR Doc. 2010–6936 Filed 3–26–10; 8:45 am] 

BILLING CODE 1410–30–P 

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION 

AGENCY 

40 CFR Part 52 

[EPA–R06–OAR–2007–0526; FRL–9130–9] 

Approval and Promulgation of Air 

Quality Implementation Plans; Texas; 

Revision to Control Volatile Organic 

Compound Emissions in the Houston/ 

Galveston/Brazoria 8-Hour Ozone 

Nonattainment Area 

AGENCY: Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA). 

ACTION: Proposed rule. 

SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection 

Agency (EPA) proposes to approve a 

revision to the Texas State 

Implementation Plan (SIP). The revision 

adds additional requirements to control 

volatile organic compound (VOC) 

emissions from storage tanks, transport 

vessels and marine vessels in the 

Houston/Galveston/Brazoria (HGB) 1997 

8-hour ozone nonattainment area, which 

consists of Brazoria, Chambers, Fort 

Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty, 


srobinson on DSKHWCL6B1PROD with PROPOSALS