II 

110TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1353 

To nullify the determinations of the Copyright Royalty Judges with respect 

to webcasting, to modify the basis for making such a determination, 

and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 10, 2007 

Mr. WYDEN (for himself and Mr. BROWNBACK) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To nullify the determinations of the Copyright Royalty 

Judges with respect to webcasting, to modify the basis 

for making such a determination, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Internet Radio Equal5 ity Act of 2007’’. 

6 SEC. 2. NULLIFICATION OF DECISION OF COPYRIGHT ROY7 ALTY JUDGES. 

8 The March 2, 2007, Determination of Rates and 

9 Terms of the United States Copyright Royalty Judges reVerDate Aug 31 2005 03:29 May 11, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1353.IS S1353

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1 garding rates and terms for the digital performance of 

2 sound recordings and ephemeral recordings, including that 

3 determination as modified by the April 17, 2007, Order 

4 Denying Motions for Rehearing and any subsequent modi5 fication to that determination by the Copyright Royalty 

6 Judges that is published in the Federal Register and the 

7 April 23, 2007, Final Determination of Rates and Terms 

8 of the United States Copyright Royalty Judges regarding 

9 rates and terms for the digital performance of sound re10 cordings and ephemeral recordings and any subsequent 

11 modification to that determination by the Copyright Roy12 alty Judges that is published in the Federal Register, are 

13 not effective, and shall be deemed never to have been effec14 tive. 

15 SEC. 3. COMPUTATION OF ROYALTY FEES FOR COMMER16 CIAL INTERNET RADIO SERVICES OFFERING 

17 DIGITAL PERFORMANCES OF SOUND RE18 CORDINGS. 

19 (a) STANDARD FOR DETERMINING RATES AND

20 TERMS.—Section 114(f)(2)(B) of title 17, United States 

21 Code, is amended by striking ‘‘Such rates and terms shall 

22 distinguish’’ and all that follows through the end of clause 

23 (ii) and inserting the following: ‘‘The Copyright Royalty 

24 Judges shall establish rates and terms in accordance with 

25 the objectives set forth in section 801(b)(1). Such rates 


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1 and terms may include a minimum annual royalty of not 

2 more than $500 for each provider of services that are sub3 ject to such rates and terms, which shall be the only min4 imum royalty fee and shall be assessed only once annually 

5 to that provider.’’. 

6 (b) TRANSITION RULE.—Except for services covered 

7 by section 118 of title 17, United States Code, each pro8 vider of digital audio transmissions that otherwise would 

9 have been subject to the rates and terms of the determina10 tion of the Copyright Royalty Judges made ineffective by 

11 section 2 of this Act shall instead pay royalties for each 

12 year of the 5-year period beginning on January 1, 2006, 

13 at 1 of the following rates, as selected by the provider for 

14 that year: 

15 (1) 0.33 cents per hour of sound recordings 

16 transmitted to a single listener. 

17 (2) 7.5 percent of the revenues received by the 

18 provider during that year that are directly related to 

19 the provider’s digital transmissions of sound record20 ings. 


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1 SEC. 4. COMPUTATION OF ROYALTY FEES FOR NON2 COMMERCIAL STATIONS OFFERING DIGITAL 

3 PERFORMANCES OF SOUND RECORDINGS. 

4 (a) AMENDMENTS TO SECTION 118 OF TITLE 17, 

5 UNITED STATES CODE.—Section 118 of title 17, United 

6 States Code, is amended— 

7 (1) in subsection (b), in the matter preceding 

8 paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘and published pictorial’’ 

9 and inserting ‘‘, sound recordings, and published 

10 pictorial’’; 

11 (2) in subsection (c)— 

12 (A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 

13 by striking ‘‘and published pictorial’’ and in14 serting ‘‘, sound recordings, and published pic15 torial’’; and 

16 (B) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘or non17 profit institution or organization’’ after ‘‘broad18 cast station’’; and 

19 (3) in subsection (f), by striking ‘‘paragraph 

20 (2)’’ and inserting ‘‘paragraph (1) or (2)’’. 

21 (b) TRANSITION RULES.— 

22 (1) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided under 

23 paragraph (2), for each calendar year (or portion 

24 thereof) beginning after December 31, 2004, until 

25 an applicable voluntary license agreement is filed 

26 with the Copyright Royalty Judges under section 


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1 118 of title 17, United States Code (as amended by 

2 subsection (a) of this section), or an applicable de3 termination is issued by the Copyright Royalty 

4 Judges under section 118 of such title (as so amend5 ed) — 

6 (A) except as provided under subpara7 graphs (B) and (C), the annual royalty that a 

8 public broadcast entity shall pay to owners of 

9 copyrights in sound recordings for the uses pro10 vided under section 118(c) of such title (as so 

11 amended) shall be an amount equal to 1.05 

12 times the amount paid by that entity (or in the 

13 case of a group of related entities, the fees paid 

14 by such group) under section 114(f)(2) of title 

15 17, United States Code, for such uses during 

16 the calendar year ending December 31, 2004; 

17 (B) the annual royalty that a public broad18 casting entity that is a noncommercial 

19 webcaster and did not owe royalties under sec20 tion 114(f)(2) of title 17, United States Code, 

21 during the calendar year ending December 31, 

22 2004, shall pay to owners of copyrights in 

23 sound recordings for the uses provided under 

24 section 118(c) of such title (as so amended) 

25 shall be the amount that would have been owed 


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1 under the agreement entered into under section 

2 114(f)(5) of that title for such uses applicable 

3 to noncommercial webcasters as in effect during 

4 calendar year 2004; and 

5 (C) the annual royalty that public broad6 casting entities constituting National Public 

7 Radio, Inc., its member stations and public 

8 radio stations qualified to receive funding from 

9 the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, shall 

10 collectively pay to owners of copyrights in sound 

11 recordings for the uses provided under section 

12 118(c) of such title (as so amended) shall be an 

13 amount equal to 1.05 times the amount paid on 

14 the behalf of these entities under section 

15 114(f)(2) of title 17, United States Code, for 

16 such uses during the calendar year ending De17 cember 31, 2004. 

18 (2) LIMITATION.—No entity shall be required 

19 under paragraph (1)(A) or (B) to pay more than 

20 $5,000 for any calendar year. 

21 SEC. 5. CREDIT OF ROYALTY FEES. 

22 Any royalties received under the March 2, 2007, De23 termination of Rates and Terms of the United States 

24 Copyright Royalty Judges regarding rates and terms for 

25 the digital performance of sound recordings and ephemVerDate Aug 31 2005 03:29 May 11, 2007 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1353.IS S1353

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1 eral recordings, including that determination as modified 

2 by the April 17, 2007, Order Denying Motions for Rehear3 ing and any subsequent modification to that determination 

4 by the Copyright Royalty Judges that is published in the 

5 Federal Register and the April 23, 2007, Final Deter6 mination of Rates and Terms of the United States Copy7 right Royalty Judges regarding rates and terms for the 

8 digital performance of sound recordings and ephemeral re9 cordings and any subsequent modification to that deter10 mination by the Copyright Royalty Judges that is pub11 lished in the Federal Register shall be credited against 

12 royalties required to be paid under section 3 or 4 of this 

13 Act. 

Æ 


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