Library of Congress

The United States Copyright Office, a part of the Library of Congress. It is the official U.S. government body that maintains records of copyright registration in the United States. It is used by copyright title searchers who are attempting to clear a chain of title for copyrighted works.

The Copyright Royalty and Distribution Reform Act of 2004 (CRDRA) established the Copyright Royalty Judges program in the Library of Congress. The Copyright Royalty Judges (Judges) oversee the copyright law’s statutory licenses, which permit qualified parties to use multiple copyrighted works without obtaining separate licenses from each copyright owner. The Judges determine and adjust royalty rates and terms applicable to the statutory copyright licenses. They also oversee distribution of royalties deposited with the Copyright Office by certain statutory licensees and adjudicate controversies relating to the distributions.

The Copyright Royalty Judges, who make up the Library of Congress’ Copyright Royalty Board, were established under the Copyright Royalty and Distribution Act of 2004 (Pub. L. 108-418). The Copyright Royalty Judges were created to replace copyright arbitration royalty panels and to make determinations and adjustments of reasonable terms and rates of certain royalty payments under certain sections of Title 17 of the United States Code. Other duties assigned to the Judges included making determinations concerning the adjustment of the copyright royalty rates; authorizing certain royalty fees collected to the extent that the Copyright Royalty Judges find that the distribution of such fees is not subject to controversy; accepting or rejecting certain royalty claims filed on the basis of timeliness or the failure to establish the basis for a claim; accepting or rejecting rate adjustment petitions and petitions to participate; determining the status of a digital audio recording device or a digital audio interface device; adopting as a basis for statutory terms and rates or as a basis for the distribution of statutory royalty payments, an agreement concerning such matters reached among some or all of the participants in a proceeding at any time during the proceeding; and performing other duties, as assigned by the Register of Copyrights within the Library of Congress.