[Federal Register: March 28, 2006 (Volume 71, Number 59)]
[Proposed Rules]
[Page 15368-15371]
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
Copyright Office
37 CFR Part 201
[Docket No. RM 2006-1]
Fees
AGENCY: Copyright Office, Library of Congress.
ACTION: Notice of proposed rulemaking.
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SUMMARY: This notice of proposed rulemaking is issued to inform the
public that the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress is
considering adoption of new fees for special services and Licensing
Division services, and that the Office has submitted to Congress
proposed new statutory fees for certain other services. The proposed
fees would recover a significant part of the costs to the Office of
registering claims and provide full cost recovery for many services
provided by the Office which benefit only or primarily the user of that
service.
DATES: Comments should be in writing and received on or before April
27, 2006.
ADDRESSES: If hand delivered by a private party, an original and ten
copies of any comment should be brought to Room LM-401 of the James
Madison Memorial Building between 8:30 a.m. and 5 p.m. and the envelope
should be addressed as follows: Office of the General Counsel, U.S.
Copyright Office, James Madison Memorial Building, Room LM-401, 101
Independence Avenue, SE., Washington, DC 20559-6000. If hand delivered
by a commercial courier, an original and ten copies of any comment must
be delivered to the Congressional Courier Acceptance Site located at
Second and D Streets, NE., Washington, DC, between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The envelope should be addressed as follows: Copyright Office General
Counsel, Room LM-403, James Madison Memorial Building, 101 Independence
Avenue, SE., Washington DC. If sent by mail, an original and five
copies of any comment should be addressed to: Copyright GC/I&R, P.O.
Box 70400, Southwest Station, Washington, DC 20024-0400. Comments may
not be delivered by means of overnight delivery services such as
Federal Express, United Parcel Service, etc., due to delays in
processing receipt of such deliveries.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Tanya M. Sandros, Associate General
Counsel, or Kent Dunlap, Principal Legal Advisor for the General
Counsel, Telephone: (202) 707-8380. Telefax: (202) 707-8366.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Section 708 of the copyright law establishes
two separate procedures for adjusting fees for Copyright Office
services to account for increases in costs. Fees for services
specifically enumerated in section 708(a)(1)-(9) (``statutory fees'')
are adjusted according to the procedures set forth in section 708(b).
This procedure includes the completion of a cost study, and the
forwarding of an economic report and proposed fee schedule to Congress,
which takes effect unless Congress enacts a law within 120 days
disapproving of the new fees. The second procedure concerns fees for
services not specifically enumerated in section 708(a)(1)-(9), and for
the purposes of this rulemaking, these fees are termed ``discretionary
fees.'' Section 708(a) authorizes the Register to set these fees at
``the cost of providing the service.'' As with the statutory fees, the
Copyright Office adjusts the discretionary fees only after conducting a
cost study to determine the cost of providing the services.
This is the third schedule of fees to be proposed under the current
fee setting procedure which was adopted when section 708 was amended in
1997 with the passage of the Technical Amendments Act, Public Law 105-
80, 111 Stat. 1529. The first schedule was adopted in 1999, see 63 FR
43426 (August 13, 1998) and 64 FR 29518 (June 1, 1999), and the second
schedule was adopted three years later in 2002. To cover the rising
costs of providing copyright services, most fees were increased in
2002. However, notable among fees that were not adjusted at that time
was the basic registration filing fee, which was kept at the 1999
level. The Register provided a number of reasons for her determination
that no increase in basic registration fees was warranted at the time.
They included the substantial increase of 1999 which accounted for an
acceptable level of cost recovery, the costs associated with increasing
the fee, and the changes in processing anticipated from the Copyright
Office's impending business process reengineering effort. 67 FR 38003
(May 31, 2002).
Because costs have continued to rise since the last fee adjustment
in 2002, the Office undertook a third cost study to assess how well
current fees allowed the Copyright Office to recover its costs of
providing its services to the public. The result of that study is
today's proposal to increase most fees to a level that allows the
Office to recover a significant portion of its costs as contemplated by
Congress.
I. Overview
The expenses of the Copyright Office have always been substantially
funded through the charging of fees for the services provided, although
programs relating to domestic and international copyright policy and
public information have been generally paid for by appropriated funds.
Yet, for the last fifty years, fees have not provided for full cost
recovery. During this period, cost recovery through the charging of
fees has ranged from 50% to 80% of the expenses of the Copyright
Office. In fiscal year 2005, the Copyright Office collected $23,788,227
in fees, sufficient to offset only 56.7% of the total expenditures of
the Office, whereas in 2002, fees covered just over 66% of the Office's
costs for providing its services.
In order to place the Copyright Office on a sounder financial
footing, a cost study was undertaken last year by the Office which
evaluated all the fees charged by the Copyright Office. Based upon its
findings, the Office determined that most fees for services mandated by
statute should be adjusted to reflect increased costs of providing the
various services. These proposed new fees falling within the rate
adjustment procedure of section 708(b) were submitted to Congress on
March 1,
[[Page 15369]]
2006. Congress now has 120 days to consider these fees. During that
time, the Office is also providing the public with an opportunity to
comment on the statutory fees which the Office intends to adjust to
recover the increased costs of providing the specified services.
Section 708(a) also provides the Register of Copyrights with
authority to fix fees for other services based on the cost of providing
that service. Like the statutory fees, the Office is proposing to
adjust these discretionary fees to reflect increases in the cost of
providing those services and, in those instances where the service
benefits primarily the user of that service, the fee has been set to
recover the full cost to the Office of providing that service. However,
before adopting these proposed new fees, the Office is providing the
public with an opportunity to comment. The Copyright Office plans to
implement the new discretionary fees on the same day the statutory fees
are scheduled to become effective, July 1, 2006.
II. Discretionary Fees
In general, the proposed discretionary fees have been adjusted to
reflect the current cost of providing the service. Before making this
decision, the Office conducted a study of the costs of the services
provided and took into account the criterion that the Register may set
fees at a level no more than necessary to recover the reasonable costs
incurred by the Copyright Office. Because costs have increased, and the
Register is keenly aware of Congress's basic criterion of cost
recovery, most fees will be increased. Some will be increased at full
cost recovery where the service benefits only or primarily the
requester, e.g, secure test processing, expedited handling of claims,
and expedited searches. Fees for first and second level reconsideration
of refusal to register a claim are also being increased, but not at the
level of full cost recovery, since it may be helpful to courts to have
the claims reexamined at a higher level, and the purpose of providing
such review is to ensure that the Office's decisions on registration
comply with the applicable legal standards.
While this notice will not discuss each fee increase individually
because fees have been adjusted either to recover the cost of the
service or to account for the rate of inflation since the last fee
adjustment, the Copyright Office believes further clarification is
useful for the following fees.
1. Registration of GATT Group. The Copyright Office has decided to
eliminate the option of registering up to ten related, restored works
published within the same calendar year as a GATT/Group. This service
is seldom used and it is costly to the Office. Consequently, GATT/Group
has been listed as discontinued. However, works that would have been
filed under this provision can still be registered, although each work
must be registered individually. Technical amendments will be made in
the final rule to 37 CFR 202.12(c) to reflect this change.
2. Recordation of Notices of Intent to Enforce (NIE's). With the
enactment of section 104A of the copyright law in 1993, the Copyright
Office was given the responsibility of recording documents known as
Notices of Intent to Enforce copyrights restored under the Uruguay
Round Agreements Act. Because the term of eligibility for filing NIE's
has concluded for most countries, this is now a seldom used service.
The Copyright Office has decided to apply the same fees to NIE's as are
applicable to other recorded documents.
3. Search estimate by the Reference & Bibliography Section.
Currently, the Reference & Bibliography Section provides a free written
estimate of the number of hours which will likely be needed to complete
a search and report and an estimate of the fee to conduct this search.
But in order to arrive at the estimate, the Reference and Bibliography
Section actually performs a major part of the search; and if the client
requesting the estimate decides not to order the search, the Office
receives no fee to cover its cost of providing the estimate.
Consequently, the Office will no longer provide free estimates under
the new fee schedule. Instead, as with other services that are
primarily for the benefit of the user, the Copyright Office is setting
the fee at a level to recover its cost for the service provided. The
fee to prepare a written estimate will now be $100. If the client
requests that the search and report be undertaken, the $100 fee will be
applied to the total fee charged.
4. Handling fee for extra deposit copy for certification. For
claimants who wish to obtain certified copies of their deposits after
issuance of the certificate of registration, the Copyright Office will
accept an extra deposit copy to be certified upon registration of the
claim. The current fee for this service is the same as the fee for the
basic registration and it has been adjusted under the new schedule to
the same level as the basic registration fee.
5. Expedited Reference & Bibliography Search and Report. The
Copyright Office is adopting an hourly fee for providing a written
search report based on an expedited search of the Copyright Office
records. This fee replaces the current hourly fee and surcharge now
used to cover the costs of these services. The new single fee covers
both the search and the written report and has been calculated to
maintain full cost recovery.
6. Copying fees. Current fees do not recover the costs of providing
copies of Copyright Office records or copies of deposits, often
exceeding by approximately 50% the amount of fees received by the
Office for these services. To eliminate this shortfall, the new fees
for various forms of reproductions have been increased by up to 50%
and, in the case of photocopying documents, a minimum fee of $6.00 has
been added to cover the administrative costs of handling these
requests. Moreover, the Office has decided to harmonize the fees for
photocopying throughout the Office.
III. Statutory Fees
The Office is basing its conclusion that most statutory fees should
be increased upon its findings from the cost study and after
considering a number of policy and economic factors such as fairness
and equity and consideration of the objectives of the copyright system,
projected inflation, and the effect of these increases on the public's
decision to utilize these services. In light of these considerations, a
number of statutory fees have been adjusted to achieve or maintain full
cost recovery, e.g., the fees for filing a supplemental registration,
filing a registration for renewal or for a group of related works,
issuing a receipt for a deposit under 17 U.S.C. 407, recording
documents of various types, and providing additional certificates,
whereas other statutory fees have been adjusted only to account for
inflation since the last fee adjustment in 2002.
Moreover, the Office has concluded that the basic registration
filing fee, which was not adjusted in 2002, should be increased by 50%
this year from $30 to $45. However, this increase does not reflect full
cost recovery for the service provided nor does the Office seek to
recover its full cost for registration of a single claim. The
registration system provides benefits to the public and to the Library
of Congress that offset the need to set fees at a level that would
recover full costs. Although the copyright law provides incentives to
register copyrights, see 17 U.S.C. 410(c), 411(a), and 412, the Office
nevertheless recognizes that copyright owners balance the benefits of
these incentives against the costs of registration, and that there is a
fair degree of price elasticity with respect to registration.
Therefore, the Office has set the fee for the basic registration at a
level to allow reasonable recovery of costs but not so
[[Page 15370]]
high as to discourage copyright owners from filing their claims with
the Office.
The ``Analysis and Proposed Copyright Fee Schedule to Go into
Effect July 1, 2006,'' which was submitted to Congress on March 1,
2006, is posted on the Office's Web site at: http://www.copyright.gov/reports/studies/proposedfees2006.pdf
.
IV. Proposed New Statutory and Filing Fees
Based upon the cost study prepared by the Copyright Office, the
Copyright Office is proposing a new fee schedule for registration and
related services, special services, and Licensing Division services.
A comparison of existing and new fees is included in the following
charts:
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Current Fee to become effective
fees July 1, 2006
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Registration, Recordation and Rated Services
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(1) Registration of a basic
claim in an original work of
authorship:
Forms TX, SE, PA, VA $30 $45
(including Short Forms),
and Form SR.
(2) Registration of a claim in a 30 45
group of contribution to
periodicals (GR/CP).
(3) Registration of a renewal
claim (Form RE):
Claim without Addendum...... 60 75
Addendum.................... 30 220
(4) Registration of a claim in a 75 95
mask work (Form MW).
(5) Registration of a claim in a 15 25
group of serials (Form SE/
Group) [per issue, with minimum
2 issues] \1\.
(6) Registration of a claim in a 55 70
group of daily newspapers and
qualified newsletters (Form G/
DN).
(7) Registration of a claim in a 30 45
restored copyright (Form GATT).
(8) Registration of a claim in a 15 discontinued.
group of restored works (Form
GATT Group [per issue, with $45
minimum] \2\.
(8) Registration of a group of NA 75
published photographs \3\.
(9) Preregistration of certain 100 150
unpublished works \3\.
(10) Registration of a 100 115
correction or amplification to
a claim (Form CA).
(11) Providing an additional 30 40
certificate of registration.
(12) Certification of other 80 150
Copyright Office records (per
hour).
(13) Search-report prepared from 75 150
official records (per hour).
Estimate of search fee \4\.. NA 100
(14) Location of Copyright 80 150
Office records (per hour).
Location of in-process 100 150
materials (per hour).
(15) Recordation of document, 80 95
including a Notice of Intention
to Enforce (NIE) (single title).
Additional titles (per group 20 25
of 10 titles).
(15) Recordation of a Notice of 30 discontinued,
Intention to Enforce (NIE) a see item 14.
restored copyright containing
no more than one title \5\.
Additional NIE titles (each) 1 discontinued,
see item 14.
(16) Recordation of Notice of 12 12
Intention to Make and
Distribute Phonorecords.
(17) Recordation of an Interim 30 80
Designation of Agent to Receive
Notification of Claimed
Infringement under Sec.
512(c)(2) \3\.
(18) Issuance of a receipt for a 10 20
Sec. 407 deposit.
(19) Registration of a claim in 140 200
a vessel hull \3\.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Special Services
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Service charge for deposit 100 150
account overdraft.
(2) Service charge for 35 75
dishonored deposit account
replenishment check.
(3) Appeals:
(i) First appeal............ 200 250
Additional claim in 20 25
related group.
(ii) Second appeal.......... 500 500
Additional claim in 20 25
related group.
(4) Secure test processing 60 150
charge, per hour.
(5) Copying of Copyright Office
Records by staff,\3\
Photocopy (b&w) (per page, 0.50 0.50
minimum $6).
Photocopy (color) (per page, 1 1.50
minimum $6).
Photograph (Polaroid)....... 10 15
Photograph (digital)........ 30 45
Slide....................... 2 3
Audiocassette (first 30 50 75
minutes).
Additional 15 minute 20 20
increments.
Videocassette (first 30 50 75
minutes).
Additional 15 minute 25 25
increments.
CD or DVD................... 40 50
Zip or floppy disk.......... 75 100
(6) Special handling fee for a 580 685
claim.
Each additional claim using 50 50
the same deposit.
(7) Special handling fee for 330 435
recordation of a document.
(8) Handling fee of extra 30 45
deposit copy for certification
\6\.
(9) Full-term retention of a 425 425
published deposit.
(10) Expedited Reference and NA 400/hr.
Bibliography search and report
\7\.
(surcharge, per hour)....... 250 discontinued.
(11) Expedited Certification & 200 240
Documents services (surcharge,
per hour).
(12) Notice to Libraries and 50 50
Archives \3\.
[[Page 15371]]
Each additional title....... 20 20
(13) Use of COINS terminal in LM- 20 25
B14 (per hour) \3\.
(14) Fed Ex Service \3\......... 15 35
(15) Delivery of documents via 1 1
facsimile (per page, 7 page
maximum) \3\.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Licensing Division Services
------------------------------------------------------------------------
(1) Recordation of a Notice of 12 12
Intention to Make and
Distribute Phonorecords (17
U.S.C. 115).
(2) Certificate of Filing a 8 discontinued.\9\
Notice of Intention (17 U.S.C.
115).
(3) Filing Fee for Recordation 50 125
of License Agreements under 17
U.S.C. 118.
(4) Recordation of Certain 50 50
Contracts by Cable Television
Systems Located Outside the
Forty-Eight Contiguous States.
(5) Initial Notice of Digital 20 20
Transmission of Sound Recording
(17 U.S.C. 114).
Amendment of 17 U.S.C. 114 20 20
Notice.
(6) Statement of Account 15 95
Amendment (Cable Television
Systems and Satellite Carriers,
17 U.S.C. 111 and 119).
(7) Statement of Account 20 95
Amendment (Digital Audio
Recording Devices or Media, 17
U.S.C. 1003) \8\.
(8) Photocopy made by staff 0.40 0.50
(b&w) (per page, minimum $6).
(9) Search, per hour............ 65 150
(10) Certification of Search 65 150
Report.
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\1\ Amended to replace $45 minimum with a 2 issues minimum.
\2\ To be removed; see section II 1.
\3\ New items: fees not currently listed in 37 CFR 201.3(d).
\4\ New fee, see section II 3.
\5\ See section II 2.
\6\ New item: fee not currently listed in 37 CFR 201.3(d), see section
II 4.
\7\ New fee, see section II 5.
\8\ To be combined with item 6 in the final regulation.
\9\ Discontinued service, see 69 FR 34582 (June 2, 2004).
V. Technical Amendments
The Office will adopt technical amendments as needed to conform
existing regulations with the changes proposed in this notice.
VI. Request for Comments
The Copyright Office is publishing the proposed new fees in order
to provide the public with an opportunity to comment by April 27, 2006.
The new fees will take effect on July 1, 2006, unless the Copyright
Office has received adverse substantive comments, and publishes a
notice withdrawing the new fees before that date.
Dated: March 21, 2006.
Tanya M. Sandros,
Associate General Counsel.
[FR Doc. E6-4385 Filed 3-27-06; 8:45 am]