Copyright owners reiterated that the proposed fee schedule for filing statements...
Copyright owners reiterated that the proposed fee schedule for filing statements of account (SOA) by cable systems and satellite carriers failed to account for significant expenses incurred by the Copyright Office in administering the statutory licenses. The copyright owners, including…
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NPR, urged the Copyright Office to incorporate all of the licensing division’s operating costs in its fee calculation, to calculate the fees necessary to recover about half of the division’s operating costs by using the most recent data available on the number of Form 3 cable systems “and to reject ACA’s [American Cable Association] proposal for a hardship exception,” they said in joint reply comments to the Copyright Office (http://1.usa.gov/166j9mU). The proposed fees for satellite carriers “should also be adjusted to reflect the actual costs of administering the satellite license,” they said. The office lacks the authority under the statute to institute the “hardship” exception proposed by ACA, it said. The office has no basis for excluding certain costs “as ones that, in the Copyright Office’s view, principally benefit copyright owners,” it said. NCTA urged the office to adopt a conservative approach in establishing SOA filing fees. The association also urged the office to reject the copyright owners’ proposal to set the Form SA3 filing fee at $950, it said in its reply comments (http://1.usa.gov/WH4I1C). Instead, the office should establish a Form SA3 filing fee that is less than the $500 per form fee that the office initially proposed, NCTA said. “This cautious approach is warranted since the office has no prior experience with setting filing fees for cable and satellite SOAs.” DirecTV said that although it finds that the proposed schedule isn’t as reasonable as the original proposal, it doesn’t challenge the results and the office should not change it. The DBS company also opposed the copyright owners’ argument that satellite and cable filing fees should recover the “full operating costs” of the licensing division, “which are deducted from the royalty fees they receive from satellite carriers and cable operators,” it said (http://1.usa.gov/13EL7XH). But filing fees paid by copyright users and royalty fee deductions are different, it said: Filing fees are to be based solely on the costs of processing SOAs and royalties, “while royalty fee deductions are to be based on all licensing division operating costs."