[Federal Register Volume 84, Number 210 (Wednesday, October 30, 2019)]
[Notices]
[Pages 58176-58177]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2019-23625]


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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Copyright Office

[Docket No. 2019-6]


Unclaimed Royalties Study: Announcement of Public Symposium

AGENCY: U.S. Copyright Office, Library of Congress.

ACTION: Notice of public symposium.

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SUMMARY: As directed by the Music Modernization Act, the U.S. Copyright 
Office is conducting a study to evaluate best practices that the 
Mechanical Licensing Collective should implement in the following 
areas: (1) To identify and locate musical work copyright owners and 
unclaimed accrued royalties held by the collective; (2) to encourage 
musical work copyright owners to claim the royalties of those owners; 
and (3) to reduce the incidence of unclaimed royalties. To initiate 
this effort, the Office is holding a one-day symposium to provide an 
educational foundation and facilitate public discussion on issues 
relevant to the study. Following this symposium, the Office will 
separately issue Notices of Inquiry soliciting written comments and 
announcing roundtables, both of which will provide opportunities for 
public input on the Unclaimed Royalties Study.

DATES: The symposium will be held on December 6, 2019. Registration 
will start at 8:30 a.m. and the event will run all day ending at 6:00 
p.m. Additional information is available on the Copyright Office 
website at https://www.copyright.gov/policy/unclaimed-royalties/.

ADDRESSES: Library of Congress Madison Building, 101 Independence 
Avenue SE, Washington, DC 20540.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: John R. Riley, Assistant General 
Counsel, by email at [email protected] or Cassandra Sciortino, Barbara 
A. Ringer Honors Fellow, by email at [email protected]. Each may 
be reached by telephone at 202-707-8350. Requests for ADA 
accommodations should be made five business days in advance at 
[email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

I. Background

    On October 11, 2018, the president signed into law the Orrin G. 
Hatch-Bob Goodlatte Music Modernization Act (``MMA'').\1\ Title I of 
the MMA substantially modifies the compulsory ``mechanical'' license 
for making and distributing phonorecords of nondramatic musical works 
under 17 U.S.C. 115.\2\ Prior to the MMA, licensees obtained a section 
115 compulsory license on a song-by-song basis by serving a notice of 
intention on the relevant copyright owner (or filing it with the 
Copyright Office if the Office's public records did not identify the 
copyright owner) and then paying applicable royalties accompanied by 
accounting statements.\3\
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    \1\ Public Law 115-264, 132 Stat. 3676 (2018).
    \2\ See S. Rep. No. 115-339, at 1-2 (2018); Report and Section-
by-Section Analysis of H.R. 1551 by the Chairmen and Ranking Members 
of Senate and House Judiciary Committees, at 1 (2018), https://www.copyright.gov/legislation/mma_conference_report.pdf; see also 
H.R. Rep. No. 115-651, at 2 (2018) (detailing the House Judiciary 
Committee's efforts to review music copyright laws).
    \3\ See 17 U.S.C. 115(b)(1), (c)(5) (2017); U.S. Copyright 
Office, Copyright and the Music Marketplace 28-31 (2015), https://www.copyright.gov/policy/musiclicensingstudy/copyright-and-the-music-marketplace.pdf (describing operation of prior section 115 
license).
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    The MMA amends this regime most significantly by establishing a new 
blanket license that digital music providers may obtain to make digital 
phonorecord deliveries (``DPDs'') of musical works, including in the 
form of permanent downloads, limited downloads, or interactive streams 
(referred to in the statute as ``covered activity'').\4\ The blanket 
licensing structure is designed to reduce the transaction costs 
associated with song-by-song licensing by commercial services striving 
to offer ``as much music as possible,'' while ``ensuring fair and 
timely payment to all creators'' of the musical works used on these 
digital services.\5\ The new blanket license will become available upon 
the statutory license availability date (i.e., January 1, 2021).\6\ In 
the interim, the MMA ``creates a transition period in order to move 
from the current work-by-work license to the new blanket license.'' \7\
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    \4\ 17 U.S.C. 115(d)(1), (e)(7); see H.R. Rep. No. 115-651, at 
4-6 (describing operation of the blanket license and the mechanical 
licensing collective); S. Rep. No. 115-339, at 3-6 (same).
    \5\ S. Rep. No. 115-339, at 4, 8.
    \6\ 17 U.S.C. 115(d)(2)(B), (e)(15).
    \7\ H.R. Rep. No. 115-651, at 10; S. Rep. No. 115-339, at 10; 
see 17 U.S.C. 115(b)(2)(A), (d)(9), (d)(10). The Copyright Office 
has separately issued regulatory updates related to digital music 
providers' obligations during this transition period before the 
blanket license is available. See 84 FR 10685 (Mar. 22, 2019); 83 FR 
63061 (Dec. 7, 2018).
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    This blanket license will cover all musical works available for 
compulsory licensing and will be centrally administered by a mechanical 
licensing collective (``MLC''), which has recently been designated by 
the Register of Copyrights.\8\ As previously detailed by the Office,\9\ 
the MLC, through its board of directors and task-specific 
committees,\10\ is responsible for a variety of duties under the 
blanket license, including receiving usage reports from digital music 
providers, collecting and distributing royalties associated with those 
uses, identifying musical works embodied in particular sound 
recordings, administering a process by which copyright owners can claim 
ownership of musical works (and shares of such works), and establishing 
a musical works database relevant to these activities.\11\ The MLC is 
also tasked with distributing unclaimed accrued royalties following a 
proscribed holding period.
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    \8\ 17 U.S.C. 115(d)(1), (3); 84 FR 32274 (July 8, 2019).
    \9\ See generally 84 FR 32274; 83 FR 65747 (Dec. 21, 2018).
    \10\ By statute, the MLC board must establish three committees: 
An operations advisory committee, 17 U.S.C. 115(d)(3)(D)(iv), an 
unclaimed royalties oversight committee, id. at 115(d)(3)(D)(v), 
(d)(3)(J)(ii), and a dispute resolution committee, id. at 
115(d)(3)(D)(vi), (d)(3)(H)(ii), (d)(3)(K).
    \11\ Id. at 115(d)(3)(C).
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    As the legislative history explains, these responsibilities are 
intended to fill a gap in the music licensing marketplace:

    [F]or far too long, it has been difficult to identify the 
copyright owner of most copy-righted works, especially in the music 
industry where works are routinely commercialized before all of the 
rights have been cleared and documented. This has led to significant 
challenges in ensuring fair and timely payment to all creators even 
when the licensee can identify the proper individuals to pay. . . . 
[T]here is no reliable, public database to link sound recordings 
with their

[[Page 58177]]

underlying musical works. Unmatched works routinely occur as a 
result of different spellings of artist names and song titles. . . . 
The Committee believes that this must end so that all artists are 
paid for their creations and that so-called ``black box'' revenue is 
not a drain on the success of the entire industry.\12\
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    \12\ H.R. Rep. No. 115-651, at 7-8.

    0In designating the MLC, the Copyright Office accordingly noted 
that it is the MLC's ``core project [to] encourag[e] musical work 
copyright owners with unclaimed accrued royalties to come forward and 
claim such monies'' after identifying them based on the data ingested 
through uses of the license.\13\
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    \13\ 84 FR at 32279, 32289.
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    In recognition of the significant duties involved with respect to 
the potential distribution of unclaimed, accrued royalties for which 
the creators of such works will not be paid,\14\ the MMA also directs 
the Copyright Office to undertake a study that recommends best 
practices for the MLC to identify and locate copyright owners with 
unclaimed royalties, encourage copyright owners to claim their 
royalties, and reduce the incidence of unclaimed royalties. The 
resulting Unclaimed Royalties Study recommending best practices for the 
collective must be submitted to the Committee on the Judiciary of the 
Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 
Representatives by July 8, 2021. The Register is directed to solicit 
and review comments and relevant information from music industry 
participants and other interested parties, and consult with the 
Comptroller General of the United States. The MLC is required to 
carefully consider, and give substantial weight to, the recommendations 
that will be set forth in the Unclaimed Royalties Study.\15\ 
Separately, the MMA also directs the Copyright Office to engage in 
education and outreach activities to educate songwriters and other 
interested parties about the new law, including the processes by which 
a copyright owner may claim ownership in accrued royalties and the MLC 
may distribute unclaimed, accrued royalties.\16\
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    \14\ See H.R. No. 115-651, at 13.
    \15\ Public Law 115-264, sec. 102(f), 132 Stat. at 3722-23.
    \16\ Id. at sec. 102(e), 132 Stat. at 3722.
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    While the statute, legislative history, and indeed, prior Copyright 
Office policy studies are highly informative with respect to various 
aspects relevant to the policy study,\17\ the Office appreciates the 
keen interest of interested members of the public with respect to the 
MLC's functions. For example, the recent designation of the MLC 
resulted in over 600 comments, including many submitted by individual 
songwriters, expressing views with respect to the MLC's forthcoming 
activities matching uses to musical works and ownership information, 
locating copyright owners with accrued royalties, and ultimately 
reducing the amount of unclaimed royalties.\18\
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    \17\ See generally U.S. Copyright Office, Copyright and the 
Music Marketplace (2015), https://www.copyright.gov/policy/musiclicensingstudy/copyright-and-the-music-marketplace.pdf; H.R. 
Rep. No. 115-651, at 2 (citing same).
    \18\ See 84 FR at 32283-84 (discussing ways in which the statute 
addresses issues with respect to smaller independent songwriters, 
including the Unclaimed Royalties Study).
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    Because the section 115 license and the MLC's statutory duties are 
a relatively complex area of copyright that affects many in the music 
licensing ecosystem, the Copyright Office is electing to initiate its 
study with an educational public event. The public process for this 
study will roughly track that of the Office's recently-completed study 
on attribution and integrity rights.\19\ To launch the Unclaimed 
Royalties Study, the Office is holding a symposium on December 6, 2019. 
A transcript and video of the event will be made available on the 
Copyright Office website, and interested members of the public will 
have a subsequent opportunity to comment on statements or topics raised 
during the symposium, to aid the Office in its analysis of the issues. 
In 2020, the Office will separately issue a Notice of Inquiry 
soliciting written comments from the public, and also expects to 
announce public roundtables. These subsequent steps in the study 
process are intended to provide ample opportunities for the public to 
provide input on the Unclaimed Royalties Study.
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    \19\ U.S. Copyright Office, Authors, Attribution, and Integrity: 
Examining Moral Rights in the United States (2019), https://www.copyright.gov/policy/moralrights/full-report.pdf.
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II. Subjects of Discussion

    The symposium will consist of three core panel discussions 
regarding: (1) Creating comprehensive databases (including discussions 
of past efforts); (2) matching musical works to sound recordings; and 
(3) education on unclaimed royalties across the industry. The symposium 
is also expected to include representatives from the MLC and the 
Digital Licensee Coordinator, as well as a breakout session to solicit 
artists' perspectives on relevant issues. The Office will also provide 
participants and observers with an opportunity to offer additional 
comments for the record, following the panel discussion.
    The Office is currently finalizing its list of panelists. The 
finalized agenda for the symposium will be made available through the 
Office's website in the weeks prior to the event. The symposium hearing 
room will have a limited number of seats for participants and 
observers. For persons who wish to observe one or more of the 
roundtable sessions, the Office will provide public seating on a first-
come, first-served basis on the day of the symposium.

Regan A. Smith,
General Counsel and Associate Register of Copyrights.
[FR Doc. 2019-23625 Filed 10-29-19; 8:45 am]
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