[Federal Register Volume 86, Number 24 (Monday, February 8, 2021)]
[Notices]
[Pages 8655-8656]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2021-02460]


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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

U.S. Copyright Office

[Docket No. 2019-6]


Unclaimed Royalties Study

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

ACTION: Notice of public roundtables.

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SUMMARY: The U.S. Copyright Office will be holding public roundtables 
as part of its study to evaluate best practices that the newly 
established mechanical licensing collective may implement to identify 
and locate musical work copyright owners and unclaimed accrued 
royalties held by the collective, encourage musical work copyright 
owners to claim their royalties, and reduce the incidence of unclaimed 
royalties. Music industry participants and others interested in 
participating in the roundtables are invited to submit requests to 
participate pursuant to the instructions set forth below.

DATES: The public roundtables will be held on March 25, 2021. Requests 
to participate must be received no later than 11:59 p.m. Eastern time 
on February 26, 2021. Once the roundtable agenda is finalized, the 
Office will notify all participants and post the times and dates of the 
roundtables at https://copyright.gov/policy/unclaimed-royalties/.

ADDRESSES: The Office will conduct the roundtables remotely using the 
Zoom videoconferencing platform. Requests to participate should be 
submitted through the request form available at https://www.copyright.gov/policy/unclaimed-royalties/roundtable-request.html. 
Additional information will be made available at https://www.copyright.gov/policy/unclaimed-royalties/roundtable.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Jason E. Sloan, Assistant General 
Counsel, by email at [email protected]; or Cassandra G. Sciortino, 
Attorney-Advisor, by email at [email protected]. Each can be 
contacted by telephone by calling (202) 707-8350.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The U.S. Copyright Office (``Office'') is 
undertaking a policy study as directed by the Music Modernization Act 
to evaluate best practices that the newly established mechanical 
licensing collective (``MLC'') may implement to reduce the incidence of 
unclaimed royalties. The Office initiated the study on December 6, 
2019, with an all-day educational symposium to facilitate discussion on 
these issues by a broad range of industry participants and members of 
the public.\1\ The Office also commissioned a report on matching and 
royalty distribution practices of various collective management 
organizations (``CMOs'') around the world. A transcript of the 
symposium as well as the report of global collective rights management 
practices are provided on the Office's website for public 
consideration.\2\ On June 2, 2020, the Office issued a notice of 
inquiry (``NOI'') which solicited public comment on several topics 
concerning best practices to identify and locate musical work copyright 
owners and unclaimed accrued royalties held by the collective, 
encourage musical work copyright owners to claim their royalties, and 
reduce the incidence of unclaimed royalties, including by commenting

[[Page 8656]]

upon the prior symposium and comparative report.\3\ The Office received 
two rounds of public comments in August 2020. Information about the 
study, including the NOI, public comments, symposium materials, and 
comparative report may be accessed on the Office's website at https://www.copyright.gov/policy/unclaimed-royalties/.
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    \1\ 84 FR 58176 (Oct. 30, 2019); U.S. Copyright Office, 
Unclaimed Royalties Study Kickoff Symposium, https://www.copyright.gov/policy/unclaimed-royalties/symposium/.
    \2\ Susan Butler, Collective Right Management Practices Around 
the World: A Survey of CMO Practices to Reduce the Occurrence of 
Unclaimed Royalties in Musical Works (2020), https://www.copyright.gov/policy/unclaimed-royalties/cmo-full-report.pdf. 
The transcript of the symposium is available at https://www.copyright.gov/policy/unclaimed-royalties/transcript.pdf.
    \3\ 85 FR 33735 (June 2, 2020).
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    The Office will now hold roundtable discussions to allow interested 
members of the public to discuss and provide additional information on 
the topics of the study. The Office also will provide sign-up 
information for members of the public who wish to observe, but not 
participate in, one or more of the roundtable sessions. The sessions 
will be video recorded and transcribed, and copies of the recording and 
transcript will be made available on the Office's website.

A. Submitting Requests To Participate

    A request to participate should be submitted to the Office using 
the form on the Office's website indicated in the ADDRESSES section 
above by February 26, 2021. Shortly thereafter, the Office will notify 
participants of their selection and session assignments. In order to 
accommodate the expected level of interest, the Office plans to assign 
no more than one representative per organization to each session. If 
multiple persons from the same organization wish to participate on 
different issues, each should submit a separate request. Depending upon 
the number and nature of the requests, the Office may not be able to 
accommodate all requests to participate.
    The public roundtables will offer an opportunity for interested 
parties to comment on the information submitted to the Office to date 
and offer additional views concerning the best practices the MLC may 
implement to reduce the incidence of unclaimed royalties. While the 
Office will tailor sessions based on expressions of interest, it 
expects that sessions will address various issues related to data 
matching and identification of musical work copyright owners; user 
experience and accessibility of the public database and claiming 
portal; education and outreach to promote awareness and encourage 
royalty claiming; and holding and distribution of accrued royalties. 
Although the primary focus of the statutorily-mandated study must 
remain on best practices the Office may recommend for the MLC to 
consider in order to reduce the overall incidence of unclaimed accrued 
royalties, the Office will also entertain discussion of how other 
actors in the music ecosystem may support the successful administration 
of the section 115 blanket license.
    All requests to participate must clearly identify:
     The name of the person desiring to participate;
     The organization or organizations represented, if any;
     Contact information; and
     A two- to three-sentence summary of the substantive issues 
the participant expects to discuss.
    Following receipt of the requests to participate, the Office will 
prepare an agenda listing the participants, dates, and times for each 
session. These will be circulated to participants and posted at https://www.copyright.gov/policy/unclaimed-royalties/roundtable on or about 
March 18, 2021.

B. Format of Public Roundtables

    Each roundtable session will cover a topic relevant to the study, 
as discussed above. Depending on the level of interest, the Office may 
hold multiple sessions on the same topic to accommodate a greater 
number of participants and provide additional time for discussion. 
Following a discussion of the various agenda topics by roundtable 
participants, members of the public will be provided a limited 
opportunity to offer additional comments for the record, but parties 
who wish to provide detailed information to the Office are encouraged 
to submit a request to participate.

    Dated: February 2, 2021.
Regan A. Smith,
General Counsel and Associate Register of Copyrights.
[FR Doc. 2021-02460 Filed 2-5-21; 8:45 am]
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