Copyright Royalty Board announces webcast royalty rates for 2011-2015

The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has announced the rates and terms that will apply to your operations for the period January 1, 2011-December 31, 2015.

In getting this decision out as quickly as it did, the CRB has managed to do two things this time around that it failed to do in the ratemaking proceeding for 2006-2010. First, it managed to crank out a final result in a timely fashion. (By way of contrast, the decision setting the rates for 2006-2010 (“Webcasting II”) wasn't published in the Federal Register until May, 2007, at which point it had to be applied retroactively to the preceding 16 months or so.) And second, the CRB appears to have achieved relative consensus. (Again by way of contrast, Webcasting II resulted in both a two-year court challenge and an attempted legislative response).