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Librarian of Congress Publishes New Digital Era Mechanical Royalty Rates - Wednesday, February 11 2009 Concurrently with the publication of the CRB's final determination, the Register of Copyrights issued its review of the CRB determination. The Register determined that the CRB had made a mistake by failing to review the legality of the participants' settlement agreement and that the CRB has continuing jurisdiction to correct any errors identified by the Register. The Register went on to identify additional errors related to the scope of the compulsory license under Section 115 of the U.S. Copyright Act. Although we hope that all parties will abide by the settlement and the CRB's final determination, the Register's opinion and the ability of the participants (NMPA, RIAA, and DiMA) to appeal leaves open the possibility of further refinements to the CRB's ruling. HFA, however, continues to prepare for the final adoption of these rates.We are working with our subscription service licensees on these new licensing and reporting requirements. We expect to introduce new royalty reports for subscription service royalties. The new schedule of mechanical rates, which will be in effect though December 31, 2012, is: Physical recordings: 9.1 ¢ for recordings five minutes or less; for recordings over 5 minutes, 1.75 ¢ for each minute, rounded up. Permanent Digital Downloads: 9.1 ¢ for recordings five minutes or less; for recordings over 5 minutes, 1.75 ¢ for each minute, rounded up. Mastertone Ringtones: 24¢ (for non-derivative uses) Interest on late payments: 1.5% per month, or 18% per year Rates for limited downloads and on-demand streams vary by service offering and are calculated based on licensee revenue, licensee content cost, the number of subscribers and other variables. We will provide more details about these calculations when the rates become binding. Of course, we will continue to update you as more definitive information regarding new mechanical rates becomes available. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact HFA Publisher Services at 212-834-0100 or email publisherservices@harryfox.com. |