U.S. Copyright Office - Mechanical and Digital Phonorecords Delivery Compulsory License

Recent Developments

The Copyright Office proposes to amend its regulations to clarify the scope and application of the section 115 compulsory license to make and distribute phonorecords of a musical work by means of digital phonorecord deliveries. The proposed regulations would permit the section 115 license to cover all musical works embodied in phonorecords made and distributed to the public for private use, including those phonorecords made on the end‑users’ RAM or hard drive, on transmission services’ servers, and all intermediate reproductions on the networks through which transmission occurs.

The Copyright Office received requests seeking an extension of time to file comments in this proceeding. Each of the requests referred, among other things, to the recent decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in The Cartoon Network LP v. CSC Holdings, Inc., 07‑1480‑CV (2d. Cir. Aug. 4, 2008), in which the Court of Appeals reversed a district court ruling cited by the Office in the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. See Requests for extension filed by DiMA; Wiley Rein, LLP; and Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP.

The Office agrees that the ruling in the Cartoon Network case may be pertinent to the issues raised in this rulemaking and that interested parties should be given sufficient time in which to consider and comment upon the implications of that ruling. Therefore, the Office has decided to extend the deadlines for submission of comments. Comments must be received in the Office of the General Counsel of the Copyright Office no later than Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 5:00 p.m. Reply Comments must be received no later than Monday, September 15, 2008 at 5:00 p.m. The purpose of reply comments is to respond to what is said in the initial round of comments. The Office will post the initial comments on its website, www.copyright.gov, shortly after the August 28 deadline.

The Office has also determined that it would be helpful to conduct a hearing on the proposed rulemaking. The hearing will take place on Friday, September 19, 2008 in the Copyright Hearing Room at the Library of Congress, Room LM‑408, 4th Floor, James Madison Building, 101 Independence Avenue, SE, Washington, DC.

Persons wishing to testify at the hearing must submit a Request to Testify, which must be received in the Office of the General Counsel of the Copyright Office no later than Friday, September 12, 2008 at 5:00 p.m. If any person wishing to testify has not submitted a written comment, the Request to Testify must be accompanied by a statement summarizing that person's testimony.

The capacity of the room in which the hearing will be held is limited. Persons other than persons testifying will be admitted on a first‑come, first‑served basis.