[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 192 (Wednesday, October 3, 2012)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Pages 60333-60334]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-24321]
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Copyright Office
37 CFR Part 201
[Docket No. 2012-5]
Verification of Statements of Account Submitted by Cable
Operators and Satellite Carriers
AGENCY: Copyright Office, Library of Congress.
ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking; extension of reply comment
period.
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SUMMARY: The Copyright Office is again extending the deadline for
filing reply comments in response to its Notice of Proposed Rulemaking
concerning the verification of Statements of Account and royalty
payments that are deposited with the Office by cable operators and
satellite carriers.
DATES: Reply comments on the proposed rule published at 77 FR 35643,
June 14, 2012, must be received in the Office of the General Counsel of
the Copyright Office no later than 5 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT)
on October 24, 2012.
ADDRESSES: The Copyright Office strongly prefers that comments be
submitted electronically. A comment submission page is posted on the
Copyright Office Web site at http://www.copyright.gov/docs/soaaudit/.
The Web site interface requires submitters to complete a form
specifying name and other required information, and to upload comments
as an attachment. To meet accessibility standards, all comments must be
uploaded in a single file in either the Adobe Portable Document File
(PDF) format that contains searchable, accessible text (not an image);
Microsoft Word; WordPerfect; Rich Text Format (RTF); or ASCII text file
format (not a scanned document). The maximum file size is 6 megabytes
(MB). The name of the submitter and organization should appear on both
the form and the face of the comments. All comments will be posted
publicly on the Copyright Office Web site exactly as they are received,
along with names and organizations if provided. If electronic
submission of comments is not feasible, please contact the Copyright
Office at (202) 707-8380 for special instructions.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tanya Sandros, Deputy General Counsel,
or Erik Bertin, Attorney Advisor, Copyright GC/I&R, P.O. Box 70400,
Washington, DC 20024. Telephone: (202) 707-8380. Telefax: (202) 707-
8366.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: On June 14, 2012, the Copyright Office
published a notice of proposed rulemaking and request for comments
concerning a new regulation that will allow copyright owners to audit
the Statements of Account and royalty fees that cable operators and
satellite carriers deposit with the Copyright Office under Sections 111
and 119 of the Copyright Act. The Office received comments on the
proposed regulation from groups representing copyright owners, cable
operators, and satellite carriers, which have been posted on the
Copyright Office Web site at http://www.copyright.gov/docs/soaaudit/comments/index.html. The notice of proposed rulemaking stated that
reply comments would be due on September 12, 2012. See 77 FR 35643,
June 14, 2012.
On August 24, 2012, the Office received a joint motion to extend
the reply comment period (posted on the Office Web site at: http://www.copyright.gov/docs/soaaudit/soa_audit.html), which was filed by
the National Cable & Telecommunications Association (``NCTA''),\1\ the
Joint Sports Claimants, and the Program Suppliers.\2\ The moving
parties asked the Office to extend the deadline for reply comments
until October 3, 2012 in order to determine whether they agree on any
aspects of the proposed regulation, which in turn, may narrow the
issues that need to be resolved in this rulemaking. The Office granted
the moving parties' request, stating that reply comments would be due
by October 3, 2012, as requested. See 77 FR 55783 (Sept. 11, 2012).
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\1\ The NCTA is a trade association that represents cable
operators. Many of the NCTA's members file Statements of Account
with and pay royalties to the Copyright Office under the statutory
license set forth in Section 111 of the Copyright Act, which allows
them to retransmit television and radio programs that are embodied
in local distant broadcast transmissions.
\2\ Both the Joint Sports Claimants and the Program Suppliers
represent copyright owners who are the beneficiaries of the
royalties that are paid under the Section 111 and 119 statutory
licenses. Generally speaking, the Joint Sports Claimants represent
copyright owners that produce professional and college sports
programming, while the Program Suppliers represent copyright owners
that produce and/or syndicate movies, programs, and specials that
are broadcast by television stations.
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On September 26, 2012 the NCTA, the Joint Sports Claimants, and the
Program Suppliers filed a second motion to extend the reply comment
period for another three weeks (posted on the Office Web site at:
http://www.copyright.gov/docs/soaaudit/soa_audit.html). Specifically,
the moving parties asked the Office to extend the deadline for reply
comments until October 24, 2012. In support of their latest motion,
[[Page 60334]]
the moving parties stated that they have discussed the proposed
regulation, but given the complexity of the issues involved, they need
more time to complete their discussions and to prepare a joint set of
reply comments (assuming they are able to reach an agreement). The
moving parties stated that a three week extension would facilitate
these discussions without causing harm to any interested person.
In their initial motion, the NCTA, the Joint Sports Claimants, and
the Program Suppliers asked the Office to extend the deadline for reply
comments until October 3rd, indicating that this would give them a
sufficient amount of time to discuss the proposed regulation and to
reach an agreement ``regarding procedures to be presented to the Office
as part of the reply comments.'' Having granted that request, the
Office is reluctant to extend the deadline further. But in the interest
of giving the NCTA, the Joint Sports Claimants, the Program Suppliers,
and any other interested parties an opportunity to wrap-up their
discussions, and if possible, to prepare a joint recommendation on the
proposed regulation, the Office has decided to grant the stakeholders'
request and extend the deadline for filing reply comments by another
three weeks, making reply comments due by October 24, 2012. Further
extensions will not be granted.
Dated: September 27, 2012.
Maria A. Pallante,
Register of Copyrights.
[FR Doc. 2012-24321 Filed 10-2-12; 8:45 am]
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