[Federal Register: December 13, 1996 (Volume 61, Number 241)]
[Notices]
[Page 65603-65604]
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
[Docket No. 96-2 CARP-CRA]
Copyright Office: Termination of Proceeding To Adjust Cable
Compulsory License Rates
AGENCY: Copyright Office, Library of Congress.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: The Copyright Office is announcing the termination of the
proceeding to adjust the cable copyright royalty rates. The Office
takes this action following the withdrawal of all pending petitions
seeking a rate adjustment of the cable copyright royalty rates and
gross receipts limitations. As the period for filing petitions to
request a rate adjustment is over, no party may file a new petition to
initiate a cable rate adjustment proceeding until 2000.
EFFECTIVE DATE: November 8, 1996.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Marilyn J. Kretsinger, Acting General
Counsel, or Tanya Sandros, Attorney Advisor, at Copyright Arbitration
Royalty Panel, P.O. Box 70977, Southwest Station, Washington, D.C.
20024. Telephone: (202) 707-8380. Telefax: (202) 707-8366.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 111 of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C.,
grants a compulsory copyright license to cable television systems for
the retransmission of over-the-air broadcast stations to their
subscribers. In exchange for the license, cable operators submit
royalty payments, along with statements of account detailing their
retransmissions, to the Copyright Office on a semiannual basis.
A cable system calculates its royalty payments in accordance with
the statutory formula described in 17 U.S.C. 111(d). The cable system
then makes a payment based upon its gross receipts from subscribers for
the retransmission of broadcast signals. Section 111(d) subdivides
cable systems, based on the amount of their gross receipts, into three
categories: small, medium, and large. Small systems pay a fixed amount
without regard to the number of broadcast signals they retransmit,
while medium-sized systems pay a royalty, within a specific range,
based on the number of signals they retransmit. Large cable systems
calculate their royalties according to the number of distant broadcast
signals which they retransmit to their subscribers.<SUP>1 Under this
formula, a large cable system is required to pay a specified percentage
of its gross receipts for each distant signal that it retransmits.
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\1\ For cable systems which retransmit only local broadcast
signals, there is still a minimum royalty fee which must be paid.
This minimum royalty fee is not applied, however, once the cable
system carries one or more distant signals.
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Congress established the gross receipts limitations that determine
a cable system's size, and provided the gross receipts percentages
(rates) for distant signals. 17 U.S.C. 111(d)(1). Congress also
provided for adjustment of both the gross receipts limitations and the
distant signal rates. 17 U.S.C. 801(b)(2). The limitations and rates
can be adjusted to reflect national monetary inflation, changes in the
average rates charged by cable systems for retransmission of broadcast
signals, or changes in certain cable rules of the Federal
Communications Commission in effect on April 15, 1976. 17 U.S.C.
801(b)(2) (A), (B), (C), and (D). The current gross receipts
limitations and rates are set forth in 37 C.F.R. 256.2.
Section 803 of the Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C., provides that the
gross receipts limitations and the rates of the cable compulsory
license may be adjusted in 1995, and every subsequent fifth calendar
year, upon filing a petition with the Library of Congress requesting an
adjustment during these window years. If the Library determines that
the petitioner has a ``significant interest'' in the royalty rate or
rates in which adjustment is requested, the Library must convene a CARP
to determine the adjustment. 17 U.S.C. 803(a)(1).
On December 29, 1995, the Library of Congress received two
petitions requesting an adjustment to the cable compulsory license
royalty rates. The ``Copyright Owners'' <SUP>2 and the National Cable
Television Association, Inc. each filed a petition seeking an
adjustment to the cable copyright royalty rates.
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\2\ ``Copyright Owners'' is a collective term for Program
Suppliers, Joint Sports Claimants, the National Association of
Broadcasters, Music Claimants (the American Society of Composers,
Authors, and Publishers, Broadcast Music, Inc., and SESAC. Inc.),
Canadian Claimants, Devotional Claimants, the Public Broadcasting
Service, and National Public Radio.
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In response to the petitions, the Librarian established the
schedule for the cable rate adjustment proceeding. See Recommendation
and Order in Docket No. 96-2 CARP-CRA (July 22, 1996). This order
announced the 45-day precontroversy schedule which required the parties
to the proceeding to submit their direct cases on November 8, 1996.
On November 8, 1996, the parties to the petitions, however, filed a
Joint Withdrawal of Petitions for Rate Adjustment. The withdrawal
notice states that the parties ``having agreed that they will not seek
any adjustments to the cable copyright royalty rates and gross receipts
limitations in effect as of December 31, 1995, hereby withdraw all of
the pending petitions for rate adjustments filed by and on their
behalf.'' Withdrawal Notice at 1.
The Librarian of Congress accepts the parties' withdrawal of their
petitions to adjust the cable royalty rates, and as no other petitions
seeking adjustment of the cable royalty rates were filed during the
1995 window period, the Librarian announces the termination of the CARP
[[Page 65604]]
proceeding to make these adjustments, effective as of November 8, 1996,
the filing date of the notice withdrawing both petitions for rate
adjustments.
Dated: November 22, 1996.
Marybeth Peters,
Register of Copyrights.
Approved:
James H. Billington,
The Librarian of Congress.
[FR Doc. 96-31670 Filed 12-12-96; 8:45 am]
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