The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) is a

U.S. The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

system of three copyright royalty judges who determine rates and terms for copyright

statutory license A compulsory license provides that the owner of a patent or copyright licenses the use of their rights against payment either set by law or determined through some form of adjudication or arbitration. In essence, under a compulsory license, an ...

s and make determinations on distribution of statutory license royalties collected by the

U.S. Copyright Office The United States Copyright Office (USCO), a part of the Library of Congress, is a United States government body that maintains records of copyright registration, including a copyright catalog. It is used by copyright title searchers who are ...

of the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is ...

. The board, made up of three permanent copyright royalty judges, was created under the Copyright Royalty and Distribution Reform Act of 2004, which became effective on May 31, 2005, when the

Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel The Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel (CARP) system was a part of the United States Congress involved in making decisions regarding copyright royalties. Panel function The system itself was created upon the suggestion of the Register of Copyri ...

system was phased out. These administrative judges are appointed by the Librarian of Congress.

May 2007 webcasting royalty increase

On May 1, 2007, after 48 days of oral testimony (and 13,288 pages of written testimony), the Copyright Royalty Board set new rates for

webcasting A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand. Essentially, web ...

for the 2006–2010 License Period. The rates are higher than the then-existing royalties paid for non-interactive webcasting. One component of rate increase was to remove the cap on the per-station/channel minimum fee of

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

$500, which used to be $2,500. The law requires rates to be based on the price that would be set by a marketplace of willing sellers and willing buyers. Much of the discussion focused on the definition of "willing seller". The Board decided that an individual

record company A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

was the basic unit of a "willing seller". An issue that smaller webcasters raised was the desire to be assured that their fees would not exceed their revenue. The Board rejected this reasoning in their final decision because the ability of smaller stations to generate revenue from their operations has little or no bearing on the market value of the rights held by the copyright holders. A coalition of webcasters that included

National Public Radio National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

(NPR) joined together to request a rehearing on the increase in rates. On April 16, 2007, the CRB rejected the appeal on the grounds that no new evidence was introduced.

License fee rates

Commercial webcasters, per play, per listener rate There is a minimum annual fee of $500 per channel or station, payable in advance, against the above per-play fees. For example, under the 2007 rate, 100 unique listeners of a transmission of a sound recording will cost the transmitter eleven cents. The same 100 listeners previously cost a service a little over seven-and-a-half cents from 1998 through 2005. If a service plays an average of 15 songs an hour, and a listener listens for 9.1 hours a week (the average amount according to recent Bridge reports), the listener would cost the service $0.66 a month. Noncommercial webcasters Annual fee $500 per channel or station, up to a total of 159,140 aggregate tuning hours (ATH) per month. After this, the per-play rate for commercial webcasters applies. etc.

References

External links

Federal Register The ''Federal Register'' (FR or sometimes Fed. Reg.) is the official journal of the federal government of the United States that contains government agency rules, proposed rules, and public notices. It is published every weekday, except on feder ...

U.S. Copyright Office
{{USCopyrightActs United States Copyright Office Music licensing

May 2007 webcasting royalty increase

License fee rates

See also

References

External links