Copyright Office Issues Federal Register Notice Adopting Industry Agreed Increase to Cable Compulsory License Fee

The copyright owner groups and NCTA agreed to increases in the cable compulsory license rates and gross receipts limitations that are used to calculate cable systems’ copyright payments under the cable compulsory license. The Copyright Office this week issued a notice proposing to adopt the agreed upon increases after a 30-day comment period has expired. Because the Copyright Office will accept comments or objections only from those that pay or receive cable copyright royalties, and the payers and recipients of cable royalties negotiated the agreed increases, it is unlikely there will be any accepted challenge to the proposed increases.

The effective date for the increased rates is set for July 1, 2000, thus requiring all cable systems to pay the increased rates for the current copyright accounting period 2000/2, which covers July through December 2000.

If you have any questions concerning cable compulsory license payments, please contact us.