Ex Parte Communications
Guidelines for communications:
In its January 30, 2024 Notice of Inquiry, the Copyright Office indicated it may permit informal communication to supplement the written record, and that guidelines for such communications would follow the Office’s ex parte meeting guidelines.
In the initial designation rulemaking, the Office limited ex parte communications to parties who were seeking to be designated under the statute as the Mechanical Licensing Collective or as the Digital Licensee Coordinator. Given the extensive written comments received and statutory deadline for completion of the designation process, the Office was unable to meet with non-proponent commentors.
In this rulemaking, any interested party may request an ex parte meeting to discuss targeted issues related to the merits of the periodic review of the Office’s designations of the Mechanical Licensing Collective and Digital Licensee Coordinator. Any meetings must be conducted before the end of August 2024.
To ensure that such communications were governed by transparent and consistent procedures, the Office established the following guidelines:
- Ex parte meetings with the Office are intended to provide an opportunity for parties to clarify or provide follow-up on issues raised by prior written submissions, and to respond to questions from the Office on those matters. As indicated in the Notice, the primary vehicle for information remains the designee’s submissions and written comments and any informal communications will supplement, not substitute, that written record. The Office will not consider or accept new documentary materials outside of these guidelines.
- Within five business days after the ex parte meeting, the attendees are required to email a letter to the Office that lists all participants and provides a summary of their comments and positions from the meeting. The letter must summarize the substance of the views expressed in such a way that a non-participating party will understand the scope of issues discussed; merely listing the subjects discussed or providing a 1–2 sentence description will not be sufficient. These letters will be made publicly available on this webpage.