Amendments to Regulations Governing Cable, Satellite, and DART License Reporting Practices

The U.S. Copyright Office has issued a final rule amending its regulations governing the royalty reporting practices of cable operators under section 111 of the Copyright Act and statement of account forms and filing requirements. This rulemaking resolves issues raised by the Office in an earlier notice of inquiry and proposed rule directed toward cable reporting practices and the statement of account forms and addresses additional issues that have subsequently developed. The final rule updates certain reporting requirements relating to equipment fees and adds others relating to the reporting of other fees, such as broadcast fees, and information such as the county in which the cable operator is located.


To the extent this rule changes the Office’s section 111 regulations governing the processing of refunds, supplemental or amended payments, or calculation of interest, as well as case management procedures, it makes similar changes with regard to the regulations governing the section 119 and Chapter 10 licenses for satellite carriers and digital audio recording devices or media.


To implement the rule, the Office will issue new statement of account forms. In the interim, cable operators are advised to use the current forms available on the Office’s website.