H. R. 1551—59 
any State arising from a digital audio transmission or reproduc-
tion that is made before the date of enactment of this section 
of a sound recording fixed before February 15, 1972, if— 
‘‘(A) the digital audio transmission would have satisfied 
the requirements for statutory licensing under section 
114(d)(2) or been exempt under section 114(d)(1), or the 
reproduction would have satisfied the requirements of sec-
tion 112(e)(1), as the case may be, if the sound recording 
were fixed on or after February 15, 1972; and 
‘‘(B) either— 
‘‘(i) except in the case of a transmission that would 
have been exempt under section 114(d)(1), not later 
than 270 days after the date of enactment of this 
section, the transmitting entity pays statutory royalties 
and provides notice of the use of the relevant sound 
recordings in the same manner as required by regula-
tions adopted by the Copyright Royalty Judges for 
sound recordings that are fixed on or after February 
15, 1972, for all the digital audio transmissions and 
reproductions satisfying the requirements for statutory 
licensing under sections 112(e)(1) and 114(d)(2) during 
the 3 years before that date of enactment; or 
‘‘(ii) an agreement voluntarily negotiated between 
the rights owner and the entity performing the sound 
recording (including a litigation settlement agreement 
entered into before the date of enactment of this sec-
tion) authorizes or waives liability for any such trans-
mission or reproduction and the transmitting entity 
has paid for and reported such digital audio trans-
mission under that agreement. 
‘‘(2) RULE
OF
CONSTRUCTION
FOR
COMMON
LAW
COPY-
RIGHT.—For purposes of paragraph (1), a claim of common 
law copyright or equivalent right under the laws of any State 
includes a claim that characterizes conduct subject to that 
paragraph as an unlawful distribution, act of record piracy, 
or similar violation. 
‘‘(3) RULE
OF
CONSTRUCTION
FOR
PUBLIC
PERFORMANCE 
RIGHTS.—Nothing in this section may be construed to recognize 
or negate the existence of public performance rights in sound 
recordings under the laws of any State. 
‘‘(f) LIMITATIONS ON REMEDIES.— 
‘‘(1) FAIR
USE; USES
BY
LIBRARIES, ARCHIVES, AND
EDU-
CATIONAL INSTITUTIONS.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—The limitations on the exclusive 
rights of a copyright owner described in sections 107, 108, 
109, 110, and 112(f) shall apply to a claim under subsection 
(a) with respect to a sound recording fixed before February 
15, 1972. 
‘‘(B) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION FOR SECTION 108(H).—With 
respect to the application of section 108(h) to a claim under 
subsection (a) with respect to a sound recording fixed before 
February 15, 1972, the phrase ‘during the last 20 years 
of any term of copyright of a published work’ in such 
section 108(h) shall be construed to mean at any time 
after the date of enactment of this section.
H. R. 1551—60 
‘‘(2) ACTIONS.—The limitations on actions described in sec-
tion 507 shall apply to a claim under subsection (a) with respect 
to a sound recording fixed before February 15, 1972. 
‘‘(3) MATERIAL ONLINE.—Section 512 shall apply to a claim 
under subsection (a) with respect to a sound recording fixed 
before February 15, 1972. 
‘‘(4) PRINCIPLES OF EQUITY.—Principles of equity apply to 
remedies for a violation of this section to the same extent 
as such principles apply to remedies for infringement of copy-
right. 
‘‘(5) FILING REQUIREMENT FOR STATUTORY DAMAGES AND 
ATTORNEYS’ FEES.— 
‘‘(A) FILING OF INFORMATION ON SOUND RECORDINGS.— 
‘‘(i) FILING REQUIREMENT.—Except in the case of 
a transmitting entity that has filed contact information 
for that transmitting entity under subparagraph (B), 
in any action under this section, an award of statutory 
damages or of attorneys’ fees under section 504 or 
505 may be made with respect to an unauthorized 
use of a sound recording under subsection (a) only 
if— 
‘‘(I) the rights owner has filed with the Copy-
right Office a schedule that specifies the title, 
artist, and rights owner of the sound recording 
and contains such other information, as prac-
ticable, as the Register of Copyrights prescribes 
by regulation; and 
‘‘(II) the use occurs after the end of the 90- 
day period beginning on the date on which the 
information described in subclause (I) is indexed 
into the public records of the Copyright Office. 
‘‘(ii) REGULATIONS.—Not later than 180 days after 
the date of enactment of this section, the Register 
of Copyrights shall issue regulations that— 
‘‘(I) establish the form, content, and procedures 
for the filing of schedules under clause (i); 
‘‘(II) provide that a person may request that 
the person receive timely notification of a filing 
described in subclause (I); and 
‘‘(III) set forth the manner in which a person 
may make a request under subclause (II). 
‘‘(B) FILING OF CONTACT INFORMATION FOR TRANSMIT-
TING ENTITIES.— 
‘‘(i) FILING REQUIREMENT.—Not later than 30 days 
after the date of enactment of this section, the Register 
of Copyrights shall issue regulations establishing the 
form, content, and procedures for the filing of contact 
information by any entity that, as of the date of enact-
ment of this section, performs a sound recording fixed 
before February 15, 1972, by means of a digital audio 
transmission. 
‘‘(ii) TIME LIMIT ON FILINGS.—The Register of Copy-
rights may accept filings under clause (i) only until 
the 180th day after the date of enactment of this 
section. 
‘‘(iii) LIMITATION
ON
STATUTORY
DAMAGES
AND 
ATTORNEYS’ FEES.—
H. R. 1551—61 
‘‘(I) LIMITATION.—An award of statutory dam-
ages or of attorneys’ fees under section 504 or 
505 may not be made against an entity that has 
filed contact information for that entity under 
clause (i) with respect to an unauthorized use by 
that entity of a sound recording under subsection 
(a) if the use occurs before the end of the 90- 
day period beginning on the date on which the 
entity receives a notice that— 
‘‘(aa) is sent by or on behalf of the rights 
owner of the sound recording; 
‘‘(bb) states that the entity is not legally 
authorized to use that sound recording under 
subsection (a); and 
‘‘(cc) identifies the sound recording in a 
schedule conforming to the requirements pre-
scribed by the regulations issued under 
subparagraph (A)(ii). 
‘‘(II) UNDELIVERABLE
NOTICES.—In any case 
in which a notice under subclause (I) is sent to 
an entity by mail or courier service and the notice 
is returned to the sender because the entity either 
is no longer located at the address provided in 
the contact information filed under clause (i) or 
has refused to accept delivery, or the notice is 
sent by electronic mail and is undeliverable, the 
90-day period under subclause (I) shall begin on 
the date of the attempted delivery. 
‘‘(C) SECTION 412.—Section 412 shall not limit an award 
of statutory damages under section 504(c) or attorneys’ 
fees under section 505 with respect to a covered activity 
in violation of subsection (a). 
‘‘(6) APPLICABILITY OF OTHER PROVISIONS.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—Subject to subparagraph (B), no 
provision of this title shall apply to or limit the remedies 
available under this section except as otherwise provided 
in this section. 
‘‘(B) APPLICABILITY OF DEFINITIONS.—Any term used 
in this section that is defined in section 101 shall have 
the meaning given that term in section 101. 
‘‘(g) APPLICATION OF SECTION 230 SAFE HARBOR.—For purposes 
of section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934 (47 U.S.C. 230), 
subsection (a) shall be considered to be a ‘law pertaining to intellec-
tual property’ under subsection (e)(2) of such section 230. 
‘‘(h) APPLICATION TO RIGHTS OWNERS.— 
‘‘(1) TRANSFERS.—With respect to a rights owner described 
in subsection (l)(2)(B)— 
‘‘(A) subsections (d) and (e) of section 201 and section 
204 shall apply to a transfer described in subsection 
(l)(2)(B) to the same extent as with respect to a transfer 
of copyright ownership; and 
‘‘(B) notwithstanding section 411, that rights owner 
may institute an action with respect to a violation of this 
section to the same extent as the owner of an exclusive 
right under a copyright may institute an action under 
section 501(b).
H. R. 1551—62 
‘‘(2) APPLICATION
OF
OTHER
PROVISIONS.—The following 
provisions shall apply to a rights owner under this section 
to the same extent as any copyright owner: 
‘‘(A) Section 112(e)(2). 
‘‘(B) Section 112(e)(7). 
‘‘(C) Section 114(e). 
‘‘(D) Section 114(h). 
‘‘(i) EPHEMERAL
RECORDINGS.—An authorized reproduction 
made under this section shall be subject to section 112(g) to the 
same extent as a reproduction of a sound recording fixed on or 
after February 15, 1972. 
‘‘(j) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—A rights owner of, or featured 
recording artist who performs on, a sound recording under this 
chapter shall be deemed to be an interested copyright party, as 
defined in section 1001, to the same extent as a copyright owner 
or featured recording artist under chapter 10. 
‘‘(k) TREATMENT
OF STATES
AND STATE INSTRUMENTALITIES, 
OFFICERS, AND EMPLOYEES.—Any State, and any instrumentality, 
officer, or employee described in subsection (a)(3), shall be subject 
to the provisions of this section in the same manner and to the 
same extent as any nongovernmental entity. 
‘‘(l) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 
‘‘(1) COVERED ACTIVITY.—The term ‘covered activity’ means 
any activity that the copyright owner of a sound recording 
would have the exclusive right to do or authorize under section 
106 or 602, or that would violate section 1201 or 1202, if 
the sound recording were fixed on or after February 15, 1972. 
‘‘(2) RIGHTS OWNER.—The term ‘rights owner’ means— 
‘‘(A) the person that has the exclusive right to 
reproduce a sound recording under the laws of any State, 
as of the day before the date of enactment of this section; 
or 
‘‘(B) any person to which a right to enforce a violation 
of this section may be transferred, in whole or in part, 
after the date of enactment of this section, under— 
‘‘(i) subsections (d) and (e) of section 201; and 
‘‘(ii) section 204.’’. 
(b) CONFORMING AMENDMENT.—The table of chapters for title 
17, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the 
following: 
‘‘14. Unauthorized use of pre-1972 sound recordings ........................................ 1401’’. 
TITLE III—ALLOCATION FOR MUSIC 
PRODUCERS 
SEC. 301. SHORT TITLE. 
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Allocation for Music Producers 
Act’’ or the ‘‘AMP Act’’. 
SEC. 302. PAYMENT OF STATUTORY PERFORMANCE ROYALTIES. 
(a) LETTER OF DIRECTION.—Section 114(g) of title 17, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(5) LETTER OF DIRECTION.— 
‘‘(A) IN
GENERAL.—A nonprofit collective designated 
by the Copyright Royalty Judges to distribute receipts from 
the licensing of transmissions in accordance with subsection
H. R. 1551—63 
(f) shall adopt and reasonably implement a policy that 
provides, in circumstances determined by the collective to 
be appropriate, for acceptance of instructions from a payee 
identified under subparagraph (A) or (D) of paragraph (2) 
to distribute, to a producer, mixer, or sound engineer who 
was part of the creative process that created a sound 
recording, a portion of the payments to which the payee 
would otherwise be entitled from the licensing of trans-
missions of the sound recording. In this section, such 
instructions shall be referred to as a ‘letter of direction’. 
‘‘(B) ACCEPTANCE OF LETTER.—To the extent that a 
collective described in subparagraph (A) accepts a letter 
of direction under that subparagraph, the person entitled 
to payment pursuant to the letter of direction shall, during 
the period in which the letter of direction is in effect 
and carried out by the collective, be treated for all purposes 
as the owner of the right to receive such payment, and 
the payee providing the letter of direction to the collective 
shall be treated as having no interest in such payment. 
‘‘(C) AUTHORITY OF COLLECTIVE.—This paragraph shall 
not be construed in such a manner so that the collective 
is not authorized to accept or act upon payment instructions 
in circumstances other than those to which this paragraph 
applies.’’. 
(b) ADDITIONAL PROVISIONS
FOR RECORDINGS FIXED BEFORE 
NOVEMBER 1, 1995.—Section 114(g) of title 17, United States Code, 
as amended by subsection (a), is further amended by adding at 
the end the following: 
‘‘(6) SOUND RECORDINGS FIXED BEFORE NOVEMBER 1, 1995.— 
‘‘(A) PAYMENT ABSENT LETTER OF DIRECTION.—A non-
profit collective designated by the Copyright Royalty Judges 
to distribute receipts from the licensing of transmissions 
in accordance with subsection (f) (in this paragraph referred 
to as the ‘collective’) shall adopt and reasonably implement 
a policy that provides, in circumstances determined by 
the collective to be appropriate, for the deduction of 2 
percent of all the receipts that are collected from the 
licensing of transmissions of a sound recording fixed before 
November 1, 1995, but which is withdrawn from the 
amount otherwise payable under paragraph (2)(D) to the 
recording artist or artists featured on the sound recording 
(or the persons conveying rights in the artists’ performance 
in the sound recording), and the distribution of such 
amount to 1 or more persons described in subparagraph 
(B) of this paragraph, after deduction of costs described 
in paragraph (3) or (4), as applicable, if each of the following 
requirements is met: 
‘‘(i) CERTIFICATION OF ATTEMPT TO OBTAIN A LETTER 
OF DIRECTION.—The person described in subparagraph 
(B) who is to receive the distribution has certified 
to the collective, under penalty of perjury, that— 
‘‘(I) for a period of not less than 120 days, 
that person made reasonable efforts to contact the 
artist payee for such sound recording to request 
and obtain a letter of direction instructing the 
collective to pay to that person a portion of the
H. R. 1551—65 
made pursuant to subparagraph (A), the collective shall 
cease making any further payment relating to such dis-
tribution. In any case in which the collective has made 
1 or more distributions pursuant to subparagraph (A) to 
a person described in subparagraph (B) before the date 
that is 10 business days after the date on which the collec-
tive receives from the artist payee an objection to such 
distribution, the objection shall not affect that person’s 
entitlement to any distribution made before the collective 
ceases such distribution under this subparagraph. 
‘‘(E) OWNERSHIP OF THE RIGHT TO RECEIVE PAYMENTS.— 
To the extent that the collective determines that a distribu-
tion will be made under subparagraph (A) to a person 
described in subparagraph (B), such person shall, during 
the period covered by such distribution, be treated for 
all purposes as the owner of the right to receive such 
payments, and the artist payee to whom such payments 
would otherwise be payable shall be treated as having 
no interest in such payments. 
‘‘(F) ARTIST PAYEE DEFINED.—In this paragraph, the 
term ‘artist payee’ means a person, other than a person 
described in subparagraph (B), who owns the right to 
receive all or part of the receipts payable under paragraph 
(2)(D) with respect to a sound recording. In a case in 
which there are multiple artist payees with respect to 
a sound recording, an objection by 1 such payee shall 
apply only to that payee’s share of the receipts payable 
under paragraph (2)(D), and shall not preclude payment 
under subparagraph (A) from the share of an artist payee 
that does not so object.’’. 
(c) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 114(g) 
of title 17, United States Code, as amended by subsections (a) 
and (b), is further amended— 
(1) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘An agent designated’’ 
and inserting ‘‘Except as provided for in paragraph (6), a non-
profit collective designated by the Copyright Royalty Judges’’; 
(2) in paragraph (3)— 
(A) by striking ‘‘nonprofit agent designated’’ and 
inserting ‘‘nonprofit collective designated by the Copyright 
Royalty Judges’’; 
(B) by striking ‘‘another designated agent’’ and 
inserting ‘‘another designated nonprofit collective’’; and 
(C) by striking ‘‘agent’’ and inserting ‘‘collective’’ each 
subsequent place it appears; 
(3) in paragraph (4)— 
(A) by striking ‘‘designated agent’’ and inserting ‘‘non-
profit collective’’; and 
(B) by striking ‘‘agent’’ and inserting ‘‘collective’’ each 
subsequent place it appears; and 
(4) by adding at the end the following: 
‘‘(7) PREEMPTION OF STATE PROPERTY LAWS.—The holding 
and distribution of receipts under section 112 and this section 
by a nonprofit collective designated by the Copyright Royalty 
Judges in accordance with this subsection and regulations 
adopted by the Copyright Royalty Judges, or by an independent 
administrator pursuant to subparagraphs (B) and (C) of section 
114(g)(2), shall supersede and preempt any State law (including
H. R. 1551—66 
common law) concerning escheatment or abandoned property, 
or any analogous provision, that might otherwise apply.’’. 
SEC. 303. EFFECTIVE DATE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection (b), this 
title and the amendments made by this title shall take effect 
on the date of enactment of this Act. 
(b) DELAYED EFFECTIVE DATE.—Paragraphs (5)(B) and (6)(E) 
of section 114(g) of title 17, United States Code, as added by 
section 302, shall take effect on January 1, 2020. 
TITLE IV—SEVERABILITY 
SEC. 401. SEVERABILITY. 
If any provision of this Act or any amendment made by this 
Act, or any application of such provision or amendment to any 
person or circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the 
remainder of the provisions of this Act and the amendments made 
by this Act, and the application of the provision or amendment 
to any other person or circumstance, shall not be affected. 
Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
Vice President of the United States and
President of the Senate.