[Federal Register Volume 74, Number 130 (Thursday, July 9, 2009)]
[Rules and Regulations]
[Pages 32805-32809]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: E9-16126]


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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Copyright Office

37 CFR Part 201

[Docket No. RM 2008-9]


Fees

AGENCY: Copyright Office, Library of Congress.

ACTION: Final rule.

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SUMMARY: The Copyright Office of the Library of Congress is publishing 
a final rule establishing adjusted fees for its services. The adjusted 
fees will recover a significant part of the costs to the Office of 
registering claims and provide full cost recovery for many other 
services provided by the Office which benefit only or primarily the 
user of that service. The new fees are based on reliable information 
regarding the costs of providing services, and reflect cost savings 
associated with the implementation of electronic processing in the 
Copyright Office in 2007. Under the new fee structure, the fee for 
online registration of a basic claim will remain $35. The registration 
fee for Form CO will be raised from $45 to $50 and the registration fee 
for paper filings of Forms PA, SR, TX, VA, SE and faulty CO will be 
raised from $45 to $65. In a few instances, fees have been adjusted 
downward from the fees published in the notice of proposed rulemaking 
in light of comments received from the public.

EFFECTIVE DATE: August 1, 2009.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tanya Sandros, Deputy General Counsel, 
or Kent Dunlap, Principal Legal Advisor for the General Counsel. P.O. 
Box 70400, Washington, DC 20024-0400, Telephone (202) 707-8380. 
Telefax: (202) 707-8366.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Background

    This final rule adjusts Copyright Office fees in accordance with 
the applicable provisions of title 17, United States Code, and the 
Technical Amendments Act, Pub. L. No. 105-80, 111 Stat. 1529 (1997), 
codified as 17 U.S.C. 708(b). The expenses of the Copyright Office have 
always been substantially funded through the charging of fees for the 
services provided. Nevertheless, fees have never provided full cost 
recovery for all expenditures of the Copyright Office. For the last 
fifty years, cost recovery through the charging of fees has ranged 
between 50% to 80% of the expenses of the Copyright Office. The current 
fee adjustment is forecasted to cover approximately 60% of the 
Copyright Office's expenses.
    In 1997, Congress amended section 708 of the Copyright Act, 
delegating to the Register of Copyrights authority to adjust fees by 
regulation in accordance with a new procedure. Fees for services 
specifically enumerated in sections 708(a)(1)-(9), referred to as 
``statutory fees,'' are adjusted according to the procedures set forth 
in section 708(b). This procedure requires the Register of Copyrights 
to complete a cost study, and forward an economic report and proposed 
fee schedule to Congress. The Register may implement the new rules 
after 120 days unless Congress enacts a law within that period 
disapproving the new fees.
    The Register also has authority under the law to adopt new fees for 
other services based on ``the cost of providing the service.'' 17 
U.S.C. 708(a). These fees are for services not specifically enumerated 
in sections 708(a)(1)-(9), and for the purpose of this rulemaking, 
these fees are termed ``discretionary fees.'' As with the statutory 
fees, the Copyright Office adjusts the discretionary fees after 
conducting a cost study to determine the cost of providing the service 
and providing the public an opportunity to comment on the proposed fee 
changes.
    The Copyright Office has instituted fee adjustments under the 
Technical Amendments Act on four separate occasions. The first schedule 
was adopted in 1999. See 63 FR 43426 (August 13, 1998) and 64 FR 29518 
(June 1, 1999). Three years later a second adjustment was made raising 
many copyright fees, but leaving the basic registration fee at $30. 67 
FR 38003 (May 31, 2002). The third fee adjustment was adopted in 2006, 
in which most statutory fees were again raised in response to an 
increase in costs. At that time, the basic registration fee was 
increased from $30 to $45. 71 FR 15368 (March 28, 2006) and 71 FR 31089 
(June 1, 2006). The registration fee was again adjusted in 2007, at 
which time the Office established a lower basic registration fee of $35 
for copyright claims submitted electronically, while retaining the $45 
fee for filing a paper

[[Page 32806]]

application. 72 FR 33690 (June 19, 2007). The introduction of the dual 
fee structure reflected the reduced cost of processing electronic 
claims and served as an incentive to the public to file claims through 
the then-new online registration system.
    In the 2007 adjustment proceeding lowering the fee for electronic 
submission of basic copyright registration, the Office also stated that 
it would likely review the registration and service fees once 
electronic claim processing was operational for a sufficient period of 
time so as to yield reliable information on the actual costs involved 
in providing the service. The beta test of the electronic, online 
registration system began in August 2007 and, in July 2008, the system 
for the electronic submission of copyright claims was made available to 
the general public. Also in July 2008, a new procedure was introduced 
using the new Form CO - a form which must be completed on the Office 
website and which, when printed out, contains 2-D barcodes that carry 
the information entered on the application in digital form. In light of 
the experience and lessons learned over the last 21 months, the Office 
has reviewed its current practices, assessed the costs, and determined 
that fee adjustments are now in order.

Proposed fee adjustment and cost study

    On October 14, 2008, the Copyright Office published a notice of 
proposed rulemaking setting out the proposed adjustments for both 
statutory fees and discretionary fees. 73 FR 60658 (October 14, 2008). 
Shortly thereafter the cost study upon which the proposed adjustments 
were based was made available to the public on the Copyright Office web 
site.
    Among the statutory fees, the most important are those for basic 
registration. In keeping with the Office's goal of encouraging online, 
electronic registration, the proposed schedule of fees maintained the 
$35 fee for electronic copyright registration. However, the Office 
proposed a rate increase for submissions on existing paper forms, i.e., 
Forms PA, VA, SR, TX, or SE, from $45 to $65, to reflect the added cost 
associated with processing the information on these forms into the 
electronic system, and a slight increase to $50 from $45 for Form CO. 
Group registration claims for database updates, published photographs, 
and contributions to periodicals currently can only be submitted on a 
paper application at this time. Hence, the fees for a group 
registration were adjusted upward to the same $65 fee proposed for 
filing a paper application for a single claim. When online group 
registration of these classes of works becomes available, the notice of 
proposed rulemaking stated that a lower fee would apply and, therefore, 
the notice included all fees that would be applicable to claims in a 
group registration.
    In addition to the registration fees, the notice proposed changes 
to other statutory fees. Specifically, the Office proposed a minimum 
two hour charge for searches performed by the Records Research & 
Certification Division, in addition to a further adjustment for the 
rate of inflation since the last fee adjustment. It also proposed an 
adjustment to the fee for the recordation of a notice of intention to 
obtain a compulsory license under section 115(b). The notice proposed 
increasing that fee from $12 to $105, plus an additional $20 fee for 
each additional group of ten titles. And finally, the Office suggested 
a reduction in the fee for supplementary registration from $115 to 
$100, and in the fee for an additional certificate of registration from 
$40 to $35.
    For the discretionary fees, adjustments were proposed either to 
recover the cost of the service or to account for inflation. For 
example, Licensing Division fees were adjusted based on the cost of 
providing the service. These services include the filing of an Amended 
Statement of Account in accordance with sections 111, 112, 119, & 1003; 
recordation of licensing agreements under section 118; and search, 
certification, and copying fees. The Office also proposed an additional 
charge of $30 for each group of ten domain names in addition to the 
basic fee for the recordation of an interim designation of agent to 
receive notification of claimed infringement under section 512(c)(2) in 
order to cover the costs associated with processing a large number of 
domain names.
    The notice additionally stated the intention of the Copyright 
Office to harmonize its refund policy. Currently, the Copyright Office 
retains the filing fee for original, basic, supplementary, or renewal 
registration even if the claim is rejected because the material 
deposited was not copyrightable or because the claim was invalid for 
any other reason, in order to cover administrative costs for handling 
the claim. The Copyright Office also incurs administrative costs for 
other services, e.g., processing requests for recordation services or 
Licensing Division non-royalty fees, where either the request is 
withdrawn, or cannot be fulfilled due to no fault of the Copyright 
Office, but the Office retains no fees to cover processing costs. 
However, in the notice of proposed rulemaking, the Office stated its 
intention to modify the regulations to authorize the charging of an 
administrative fee equivalent to the minimum fee for all services. Such 
changes are adopted herein.

Comments

    The Office received comments from Music Reports, Inc. (``MRI''); 
Author Services, Inc.; Program Suppliers; and Professional 
Photographers of America (``PPA''). Each comment addressed a different 
topic. The issues raised by those submitting comments are summarized 
and discussed herein.

Final Regulation

    a. Adjusted fee reduced for recordation of a Notice of Intention to 
Make and Distribute Phonorecords. Music Reports, Inc., a provider of 
music licensing and royalty accounting services to digital music 
services in the United States, opposed the change in the fee for 
recording the notice of intention. It maintained that the proposed fee 
of $105 was excessive and burdensome for filers who have a large number 
of titles. The comment requested that the Office cap the fee for a 
single filing at $20, no matter how many titles were included.
    In considering the MRI comment, the Copyright Office reviewed its 
cost study with respect to the recordation of a notice of intention to 
make and distribute phonorecords under section 115 of the copyright 
law, and determined that the cost could be reduced in the near term by 
having the work involved performed by lower graded staff. With this 
adjustment, it was determined that a fee of $60 per filing, plus $20 
per group of ten titles would achieve full cost recovery. This 
adjustment represents a significant reduction over the proposed fee of 
$105 per filing. Accordingly, an adjustment in the filing fee was made 
in the cost study submitted to Congress on March 15, 2009. The Office 
also notes that once electronic filing for this service becomes 
available, costs will likely fall, and if they do, the fee can be 
reduced.
    b. Adjusted fees reduced for Renewal Addendum. Author Services, 
Inc., the literary agency representing the works of L. Ron Hubbard, 
filed a comment opposing the contemplated increases for registration of 
a renewal claim. It argued that the proposed fees for renewal 
registration are too high and should be reduced. The comment expressed 
the opinion that costs for renewal should have gone down because 
instructions with new forms issued in October 2007

[[Page 32807]]

are more complete, thereby reducing errors in the submissions. They 
believed the effect of that change was not taken into account.
    The Copyright Office has reviewed the cost study with respect to 
the fees relating to renewal registration, and concluded that the cost 
for processing a registration of a renewal had increased to the 
proposed fee of $115. However, the Office concluded that the current 
fee of $220 for Renewal Addendum could cover the cost of that service. 
Accordingly, the cost study did not ultimately recommend an increase in 
the fee for the registration of a renewal claim with an addendum. The 
fee for Renewal Addendum will remain at the current level of $220.
    c. Fees for registration of groups of published photographs. The 
Professional Photographers of America objected to raising the $45 fee 
to $65 primarily on the ground that the Office had not, as of yet, made 
such registration available online. The increase, the comment argued, 
would discourage photographers from completing the registration 
process. Moreover, PPA objected to the stated intention of the 
Copyright Office to charge a per-title processing fee for listing 
titles of individual works in an application for a collection.
    The Copyright Office believes the $65 fee is appropriate for 
photographers to pay in the interim period between the fee increase and 
the offering of group registrations in eCO. Photographers can submit an 
application for group registration encompassing hundreds of photographs 
and the current $35 fee does not cover the cost of processing such a 
claim. When electronic filing becomes available, claimants will be able 
to register groups of published photographs for the $35 fee because of 
the savings associated with the electronic registration process. As 
regarding the proposed per-title fee for unpublished collections, 
before the fee is implemented the public will have an opportunity to 
comment on the change.
    d. Fees for special services delivered by the Licensing Division. 
The Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. filed a comment on 
behalf of its member companies and other program suppliers, objecting 
to the imposition of fees on program suppliers relating to the review 
of cable, satellite, and Dart compulsory license records. They 
contended that costs for requests from program suppliers for searches, 
copying, and other services should be deducted from the general royalty 
fund, rather than collected from the program suppliers who made the 
requests because the costs of performing such services have already 
been deducted from the royalty pools.
    The Copyright Office rejects the argument of the MPAA that requests 
for special services by certain program suppliers should be deducted 
from the general royalty fund. Program suppliers who order special 
services obviously have personal business reasons for requesting the 
service, and such suppliers are the only ones who benefit from the 
Copyright Office fulfilling the requests. If such requests were 
deducted from the general royalty fund, all claimants to the fund would 
be paying for the special requests of a few claimants. The Office 
believes it apparent that program suppliers who request special 
services, and are the only ones benefitting from the service, should 
pay the costs of those services.
    e. Faulty Form CO submission. Recent experience of the Copyright 
Office in processing Form CO submissions with 2-D barcodes has revealed 
common mistakes made by remitters which make it impossible to process 
the information in the barcodes. The option of filing on Form CO with 
2-D barcodes was implemented on July 1, 2008. The 2-D barcode captures 
the data entered into Form CO and, when scanned in the Office, 
populates the various fields with the digitized data, eliminating the 
need for any transcription. Users who complete the Form CO on the 
Copyright Office Web site, print it from the Web site, and submit it 
with the fee and deposit copy or copies are charged a fee that is 
higher than the online registration fee, but lower than the fee for 
paper filings using the old application forms. The slightly higher 
costs associated with processing Form CO as compared to the online 
registration claims accounts for the price differential.
    Unfortunately, three common mistakes are being made by users which 
make the 2-D barcode useless and require the Office to process the 
application in a similar fashion as the traditional paper forms. The 
first mistake is submitting a CO application which lacks all required 
barcodes. The second is submitting a CO application which is 
incomplete; in this instance a statement appears on the website that 
the application is incomplete and should not be submitted. The third is 
adding information to the form after it has been printed. In these 
three instances, the costs of processing the form is similar to the 
costs of processing paper applications because the Office cannot rely 
solely on the information in the 2-D barcodes, if available. Due to the 
added cost to the Copyright Office, these faulty CO applications must 
be handled like a paper claim and, hence, the remitter will be charged 
the same $65 fee as traditional paper applications.
    f. Refund policy. As indicated in the notice of proposed 
rulemaking, the Copyright Office is amending regulation Sec.  201.6(c) 
to harmonize its refund policy. Under the amended regulation, fees will 
be retained for submission of a document found unrecordable; for 
requests for preparation of a search report or for certification and 
document services which are later withdrawn; or for requests for 
special services of the Licensing Division which are later withdrawn, 
and cannot be fulfilled due to a mistake in the submission.
    g. Effective date. Congress has 120 days from March 15, 2009, to 
review the proposed changes to the statutory fees submitted to Congress 
on that date. If no legislation is enacted barring adoption of these 
fees during that time period, the proposed fee schedule for 
registration, recordation, and other related services shall be adopted, 
effective August 1, 2009. The remaining fees, which are not subject to 
the Congressional review process set forth in 17 U.S.C. 708 (b)(5), 
shall become effective on August 1, 2009 as well.

List of Subjects in 37 CFR Parts 201

    Copyright, General provisions.

Final Rule

0
In consideration of the foregoing, part 201 of 37 CFR chapter II is 
amended as follows:

PART 201--GENERAL PROVISIONS

0
1. The authority citation for part 201 continues to read as follows:

    Authority: 17 U.S.C. 702.
0
2. Section 201.3(c), (d) and (e) are revised to read as follows:

Sec.  201.3 Fees for registration, recordation, and related services, 
special services, and services performed by the Licensing Division.

* * * * *
    (c) Registration, recordation and related service fees. The 
Copyright Office has established the following fees for these services:

[[Page 32808]]



------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Registration, Recordation and Related
                  Services                               Fees
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Registration of a basic claim in an
 original work of authorship:
 Electronic Filing.........................   $35
 Form-D barcode application properly          50
 completed online).
 Forms PA, SR, TX, VA, SE; and Form CO        65
 without barcodes or incomplete
 information, or information added after
 printing (paper filing).
(2) Registration of a claim in a group of
 contributions to periodicals (Form GR/CP),
 published photographs, or database
 updates:
 Electronic filing.........................   35
 Forms GR/CP, PA, SR, VA and SE (paper        65
 filing).
(3) Registration of a renewal claim (Form
 RE):
 Claim without Addendum....................   115
 Addendum..................................   220
(4) Registration of a claim in a group of     25
 serials (Form SE/Group)(per issue, minimum
 2 issues).
(5) Registration of a claim in a group of     80
 daily newspapers and qualified newsletters
 (Form G/DN).
 (6) Registration of a claim in a restored    65
 copyright (Form GATT).
(7) Preregistration of certain unpublished    115
 works.
(8) Registration of a correction or           100
 amplification to a claim (Form CA and Form
 DC).
(9) Registration of a claim in a mask work    105
 (Form MW).
(10) Registration of a claim in a vessel      220
 hull (Form D/VH).
(11) Providing an additional certificate of   35
 registration.
(12) Certification of other Copyright         165
 Office records (per hour).
(13) Search report prepared from official     165
 records (per hour) (minimum: 2 hours).
 Estimate of search fee....................   115
(14) Location and retrieval of Copyright      165
 Office materials or records (per hour).
 Fee for location and retrieval of            41.25
 electronic records (per quarter hour)
 (minimum: \1/2\ hour).
(15) Recordation of document, including a     105
 Notice of Intention to Enforce (NIE)
 (single title).
 Additional titles (per group of 10 titles)   30
(16) Recordation of an Interim Designation    105
 of Agent to Receive Notification of
 Claimed Infringement under Sec.
 512(c)(2) (single name).
 Additional domain names (per group of 10).   30
(17) Recordation of a Notice of Intention     60
 to Make and Distribute Phonorecords (17
 U.S.C. 115) (single title).
 Additional titles (per group of 10).......   20
(18) Issuance of a receipt for Sec.   407     30
 deposit.
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    (d) Special Service Fees. The Copyright Office has established the 
following fees for special services:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
              Special Services                           Fees
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Service charge for deposit account         $165
 overdraft.
(2) Service charge for dishonored deposit      85
 account replenishment check.
(3) Service charge for an uncollectible or     25
 non-negotiable check.
(4) Appeals:
 (i) First appeal...........................   250
 Additional claim in related group..........   25
 (ii) Second appeal.........................   500
 Additional claim in related group..........   25
(5) Secure test processing charge (per hour)   165
(6) Copying of Copyright Office records by
 staff:
 Photocopy (b&w, 8\1/2\ x 11) (per page,       0.50
 minimum $12).
 Photocopy (b&w, 11 x 17) (per page, minimum   1
 $12).
 Photocopy (color, 8\1/2\ x 11) (per page,     2
 minimum $12).
 Photocopy (color, 11 x 17) (per page,         4
 minimum $12).
 Photograph (Polaroid)......................   15
 Photograph (digital).......................   45
 Slide......................................   3
 Audiocassette (first 30 minutes)...........   75
 Additional 15 minute increments............   20
 Videocassette (first 30 minutes)...........   75
 Additional 15 minute increments............   25
 CD or DVD..................................   100
 Zip or floppy disk.........................   100
(7) Special handling fee for a claim........   760
 Additional fee for each claim using the       50
 same deposit.
(8) Special handling fee for recordation of    480
 a document.
(9) Handling fee of extra deposit copy for     45
 certification.
(10) Full-term retention of a published        470
 deposit.
(11) Expedited search report service (per      445
 hour) (minimum 2 hours).
(12) Expedited location and retrieval,         265
 certification, and copying services
 (surcharge, per hour).
(13) Notice to Libraries and Archives.......   50
 Each additional title......................   20
(14) Service charge for Federal Express        40
 mailing.

[[Page 32809]]

 
(15) Service charge for delivery of            1
 documents via facsimile (per page, 7 page
 maximum).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

    (e) Licensing Division service fees. The Copyright Office has 
established the following fees for certain services performed by the 
Licensing Division:

------------------------------------------------------------------------
         Licensing Division Services                     Fees
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Recordation of a Notice of Intention to    $60
 Make and Distribute Phonorecords (17 U.S.C.
 115) (single title).
 Additional titles (per group of 10)........   20
(2) Recordation of a licensing agreement for   140
 use of certain works in connection with
 noncommercial broadcasting (17 U.S.C. 118).
(3) Recordation of certain contracts by        50
 cable TV systems located outside the 48
 contiguous states.
(4) Amendment to Statement of Account filed    100
 pursuant to 17 U.S.C. 111, 119 or 1003).
(5)Notice of Digital Transmission of Sound     25
 Recording (17 U.S.C. 112 and 114).
 Amended Notice of Digital Transmission of     25
 Sound Recording.
(6) Photocopy of record by staff (b&w) (per    0.50
 page) (minimum $12).
(7) Search and report services (per hour)...   165
(8) Certification of search report (per        165
 hour).
------------------------------------------------------------------------

0
3. Amend Sec.  201.6 by revising paragraph (c) to read as follows:

Sec.  201.6 Payment and refund of Copyright Office fees

* * * * *
    (c) Refunds. (1) Money remitted to the Copyright Office for basic, 
supplementary or renewal registration, including mask works and vessel 
hulls, will not be refunded if the claim is rejected because the 
material deposited does not constitute copyrightable subject matter or 
because the claim is invalid for any other reason. Payments made by 
mistake or in excess of the fee will be refunded, but amounts of $50 or 
less will not be refunded unless specifically requested, and refunds of 
less than $2 may be made in postage stamps. Except for services 
specified in paragraphs (c)(2) and (3) of this section, before making 
any refund for fees remitted in relation to non-registration copyright 
services, the Copyright Office shall deduct an administrative 
processing fee in an amount equivalent to one hour of the requested 
service, or the minimum charge for the service.
    (2) In instances where money has been remitted to pay for 
recordation of a document, and it is determined that the document 
cannot be recorded, the basic recordation fee covering one title will 
be retained as a filing fee. Any additional money over the basic fee 
for one title will be refunded, but amounts of $50 or less will not be 
refunded unless specifically requested, and refunds of less than $2 may 
be made in postage stamps.
    (3) For services where fees are calculated on an hourly basis, such 
as preparation of a search report, certification of certain Copyright 
Office records, or location and retrieval of records, in instances 
where the request is withdrawn before work is begun by the staff member 
responsible for providing the service, the Copyright Office will retain 
half of the hourly charge for administrative expenses, and refund the 
remaining portion of the fee subject to paragraph (c)(1) of this 
section. In addition, the fee for an estimate of a search fee is non-
refundable. This policy applies to requests to the Records, Research 
and Certification Section, and requests to the Licensing Division.
* * * * *

    Dated: June 25, 2009.
Marybeth Peters,
Register of Copyrights.
    Approved by:
James H. Billington,
The Librarian of Congress.
[FR Doc. E9-16126 Filed 7-8-09; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 1410-30-S