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Coalition for Networked Information Information Policies: A Compilation of Position Statements, Principles, Statutes, and Other Pertinent Statements

Copyright Royalty Tribunal

Copyright Royalty Tribunal Suite 450 1111 Twentieth Street, NW., Washington, DC 20036 202-653-5175.

Source: U.S. Government Manual, Washington, DC, 1990/91, page 64.

The Copyright Royalty Tribunal was established by act of October 19, 1976 (17 U.S.C. 801). The Tribunal is composed of five Commissioners appointed by the President with the advice and consent of the Senate.

The Tribunal adjusts copyright royalty rates for cable retransmission of broadcast signals in recording new versions of previously recorded songs and for noncommercial educational stations that broadcast musical, pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works.

The Tribunal also has stand-by authority to adjust the rates for jukeboxes and satellite retransmission of broadcast signals to satellite homedish owners if the parties are unable to reach voluntary agreements among themselves. In addition, the Tribunal distributes the royalty fees deposited with the Copyright Office by cable operators and satellite carriers to the proper copyright owners.

In making its distribution determinations, the Tribunal considers the harm incurred by the copyright owners, the benefit to the cable satellite user, the marketplace value of the work, the time the work was aired, and the quality of the broadcast.

[Actual legislation appears in the Copyright Act of 1976.]