[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 176 (Tuesday, September 11, 2012)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 55783]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2012-22320]


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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 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. Initial comments are available for review on the 
Copyright Office Web site.

DATES: Reply comments on the proposed regulation 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 3, 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.
    On August 24, 2012, the Office received a joint motion to extend 
the reply comment period by three weeks [http://www.copyright.gov/docs/soaaudit/soa_audit.html]. The motion was filed by the National Cable & 
Telecommunications Association (``NCTA''),\1\ the Joint Sports 
Claimants, and the Program Suppliers.\2\ Specifically, the moving 
parties asked the Office to extend the deadline for reply comments 
until October 3, 2012 in order to determine whether there is any common 
ground among the NCTA, the Joint Sports Claimants, and the Program 
Suppliers concerning certain aspects of the proposed regulation. If so, 
the moving parties stated that they may be able to narrow the issues 
that they discuss in their reply comments, which in turn, may narrow 
the issues that need to be resolved in this rulemaking. The NCTA, the 
Joint Sports Claimants, and the Program Suppliers stated that they have 
been in contact with each other, but due to prior commitments, they 
will not be able to engage in meaningful negotiations until shortly 
before the current deadline.
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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 and 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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    In the interest of giving the NCTA, the Joint Sports Claimants, the 
Program Suppliers, and any other interested parties an opportunity to 
discuss the proposed regulation amongst themselves and to determine if 
the parties are able to narrow the issues that the Office needs to 
consider, the Office has decided to extend the deadline for filing 
reply comments by a period of three weeks, making reply comments due by 
October 3, 2012.

    Dated: September 6, 2012.
Tanya Sandros,
Deputy General Counsel.
[FR Doc. 2012-22320 Filed 9-10-12; 8:45 am]
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