Office Issues Final Order on Scope of Register's Exclusive Authority over Statements of Account under the Section 115 Compulsory License

Acting pursuant to statute, the Copyright Royalty Judges referred material questions of substantive law to the Register of Copyrights concerning the scope of the Register of Copyrights' exclusive authority over statements of account under the section 115 compulsory license. Specifically, the Copyright Royalty Board requested a decision by the Register of Copyrights regarding "whether the detail requirements set forth in 37 CFR as proposed section 385.12(e) (existing) and proposed section 385.22(d) (new) as well as the confidentiality requirement proposed for sections 385.12(f) and 385.22(e) encroach upon the exclusive statutory domain of the Register under section 115 of the Act." The Register of Copyrights responded in a timely fashion by delivering a Memorandum Opinion to the Copyright Royalty Board on May 1, 2013. To provide the public with notice of the decision rendered by the Register, the Memorandum Opinion is reproduced in its entirety in the Federal Register announcement. (Read more.)