Copyright Office Extends the Comment Deadline in Its Inquiry Into Providing Federal Protection to Pre-1972 Sound Recordings
The Copyright Office today announced an extension of time for the fling of comments in its inquiry into the possibe extension of Federal Copyright protection to pre-1972 sound recordings. We provided a details of that proceeding here. Internet radio operators and other digital music services that play significant numbers of pre-1972 sound recordings (particularly recordings first made in the United States), may want to comment in this proceeding, as the statutory royalty paid to SoundExchange currently does not appear to cover such recordings, though, should the Copyright Office recommend the extension of the law to cover the recordings, and if Congress takes actions to amend the Copyright Act as a result of this suggestion, royalty obligations could be extended to these recordings. At the request of the RIAA, the Copyright Office has extended the deadline for comment until January 31, 2011. Reply comments are now due on March 2, 2011.
