Source: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2005/07/20/05-14270/adjustment-of-cable-statutory-license-royalty-rates
Timestamp: 2018-07-20 19:16:24
Document Index: 512158981

Matched Legal Cases: ['§\u2009251', 'ART 256', '§\u2009256', 'art 256', '§\u2009256', '§\u2009256', 'arts 201', 'art 256']

A Proposed Rule by the Copyright Office, Library of Congress on 07/20/2005
Comments and Notices of Intent to Participate are due by August 19, 2005.
41650-41652 (3 pages)
37 CFR 251.63(b). This Federal Register notice fulfills the notice and comment requirement of § 251.63(b).
PART 256-ADJUSTMENT OF ROYALTY FEE FOR CABLE COMPULSORY LICENSE
§ 256.2 Royalty fee for compulsory license for secondary transmission by cable systems.
https://www.federalregister.gov/d/05-14270 https://www.federalregister.gov/d/05-14270
Tanya M. Sandros, Associate General Counsel, or Gina Giuffreda, Attorney-Advisor, Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP), P.O. Box 70977, Southwest Station, Washington, D.C. 20024. Telephone: (202) 707-8380. Telefax (202) 252-3423.
Section 111 of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C., creates a statutory license for cable systems that retransmit to their subscribers over-the-air broadcast signals. Royalty fees for this license are calculated as percentages of a cable system's gross receipts received from subscribers for receipt of broadcast signals. A cable system's individual gross receipts determine the applicable percentages. These percentages, and the gross receipts limitations, are published in 37 CFR part 256 and are subject to adjustment at five-year intervals. 17 U.S.C. 801(b)(2)(A) & (D).[1] This is a window year for such an adjustment.
A cable rate adjustment is initiated by the filing of a petition from a party with a significant interest in the rates. The Library received two such petitions. The Start Printed Page 41651first was filed on January 10, 2005, on behalf of the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball, the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, the Women's National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League, and the National Collegiate Athletic Association (collectively, the “Joints Sports Claimants”) and the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc., its member companies and other producers and/or distributors of syndicated television programs (collectively, the “Program Suppliers”). This petition requested that the Copyright Office commence a proceeding to adjust the cable compulsory license royalty rates set forth in 37 CFR 256.2. On April 29, 2005, the Office received a second petition from the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (hereinafter, “NCTA”), echoing the first petitioners' request for a rate adjustment proceeding to adjust the rates in § 256.2. Specifically, NCTA asked that the rate adjustment proceeding “adjust upward the gross receipts limitations currently specified in 37 CFR 256.2 to reflect national monetary inflation and to adjust downward the rates established in [section] 111(d)(1)(B),” and that it reconsider and “adjust downward the rates currently specified in 37 CFR 256.2(c) and (d) (the 3.75% rate and the `syndex surcharge').”
In response to the first petition and before receipt of the second one, the Library published a Federal Register notice seeking comment on the Joint Sports/Program Suppliers' petition and directing interested parties to file a Notice of Intent to Participate in a Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (“CARP”) proceeding. 70 FR 16306 (March 30, 2005). The notice also designated a 30-day period to enable the parties to negotiate a new rate schedule. 37 CFR 251.63(a).
In accordance with the March 30 notice, the Office received on June 30, 2005, one agreement, submitted jointly by the NCTA, the Joint Sports Claimants, the Program Suppliers, the Canadian Claimants, the Public Television Claimants, the National Association of Broadcasters, Broadcast Music, Inc., the American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers, SESAC, Inc., and the Devotional Claimants (“Settling Parties”), representing all of the parties who filed notices of intent to participate in this proceeding. The agreement proposes amending the basic royalty rates and the gross receipts limitations, the regulations governing the filing of the statements of account to reflect these changes, and proposes that these changes become effective beginning with the second semiannual accounting period of 2005. The agreement also notes that the syndex rates are not being adjusted for the new license period.
However, the Settling Parties have yet to reach an agreement on whether or how to adjust the 3.75 rate set forth in § 256.2(c) of title 37 of the CFR. Thus, the Settling Parties continue to consider these rates and will notify the Office, on or before August 10, 2005, as to whether they will seek adjustments to the 3.75 rate.
In the meantime, the Settling Parties have asked that the Librarian adopt the agreed-upon rates in accordance with the regulations governing a rate adjustment proceeding. The relevant rule provides that:
The June 30 petition proposes specific adjustments to the cable license royalty rates, pursuant to 17 U.S.C. 801(b)(2)(A), and the gross receipts limitations, pursuant to 17 U.S.C. 801(b)(2)(D). The details of the adjustments are as follows.
With respect to rates, the joint proposal raises the basic (or minimum) fee for providing broadcast stations from .956 of 1 per centum to 1.013 of 1 per centum of gross receipts for the privilege of further transmitting any non-network programming of a primary transmitter in whole or in part beyond the local service area of such primary transmitter; the fee for the first distant signal equivalent from .956 of 1 per centum to 1.013 of 1 per centum of gross receipts; the fee for the second, third, and fourth distant signal equivalents from .630 of 1 per centum to .668 of 1 per centum of gross receipts; and the fee for the fifth distant signal equivalent and each distant signal equivalent thereafter, from .296 of 1 per centum to .314 of 1 per centum of gross receipts.
With respect to the gross receipts limitations which determine the size of a cable system (small, medium or large) and the royalty fee percentages that apply to those characterizations, the joint proposal puts forward increases as well. The gross receipts threshold for determining when a cable system is a small system would be raised from $98,600 to $137,100. Medium-sized cable systems have two methods of calculating their royalties, depending upon which side of the limitation threshold their gross receipts result. That threshold would be raised from $189,800 to $263,800, with the minimum reportable gross receipts over $263,800 being raised from $7,400 to $10,400. Finally, the gross receipts limitation for determining a large cable system would be raised from $379,600 to $527,600.
The joint proposal establishes July 1, 2005, as the effective date of these rates, meaning that they would apply to royalty calculations and payments made by cable systems beginning with the second accounting period of 2005.
As noted above, the Library is publishing the terms of the joint proposal as proposed amendments to parts 201 and 256 of its rules. Any party who wishes to challenge these proposed rules must submit its written comments to the Librarian of Congress no later than close of business on August 19, 2005. The content of the written challenge should describe the party's interest in this proceeding, the proposed rule or rules that the party finds objectionable, and the reasons for the challenge.
Start Part Start Printed Page 41652
3. The authority citation for part 256 continues to read:
a. In paragraph (a), by removing the phrase “the second semiannual accounting period of 2000” and adding the phrase “the second semiannual accounting period of 2005” in its place;
f. In paragraph (b), by removing the phrase “the second semiannual accounting period of 2000” and adding the phrase “the second semiannual accounting period of 2005” in its place;
g. In paragraph (b)(1), by removing “$189,800” each place it appears and adding “$263,800” in its place, and by removing “$7,400” and adding “$10,400” in its place; and
[FR Doc. 05-14270 Filed 7-19-05; 8:45 am]