Office Amends Regulations on Cable Royalty Refunds

The Office has amended its regulations to clarify its practices for providing refunds of cable royalties under provisions of the Satellite Television Extension and Localism Act of 2010 (STELA). Cable operators must pay royalties to and file statements of account with the Copyright Office every six months to use section 111 of the Copyright Act, the statutory license that permits cable operators to retransmit over-the-air broadcast signals. Effective January 1, 2010, STELA changed the methodology for calculating the royalty fees cable operators must pay under section 111. The new regulation clarifies that the Copyright Office will refund overpayments of royalty fees for statements of account filed before the effective date of STELA only when cable operators have satisfied the outstanding royalty obligations that would have applied before the effective date. The new regulation takes effect February 8, 2013. (Read more).