One of the world’s most ubiquitous audio streaming platforms for podcasts and broadcast radio stations is poised to share all with the federal Copyright Royalty Board as it pertains to royalty payments made in 2018.
The Copyright Royalty judges on Friday confirmed that they have receipt a notice of intent to audit statements of account for fiscal year 2018 submitted by TuneIn, the commercial webcaster.
It concerns royalty payments it made pursuant to two statutory licenses.
What prompted TuneIn to make the move?
On May 7 SoundExchange filed with the Judges notice of intent to audit TuneIn for transmissions terminating in the United States for the year 2018.
This triggered a must-publish notice in the Federal Register within 30 days of receipt of a notice announcing the collective’s intent to conduct an audit.
That notice appears in today’s Federal Register.
The Copyright Act, title 17 of the United States Code, grants to sound recording copyright owners the exclusive right to publicly perform sound recordings by means of certain digital audio transmissions, subject to limitations. Specifically, the performance right is limited by the statutory license in section 114, which allows nonexempt noninteractive digital subscription services, eligible nonsubscription services, pre-existing subscription services, and preexisting satellite digital audio radio services to perform publicly sound recordings by means of digital audio transmissions. In addition, a statutory license in section 112 allows a service to make necessary ephemeral reproductions to facilitate the digital transmission of the sound recording.
Licensees may operate under these licenses provided they pay the royalty fees and comply with the terms set by the Copyright Royalty Judges.
The rates and terms for the section 112 and 114 licenses are set forth in 37 CFR parts 380 and 382 through 384.
As part of the terms for these licenses, the Judges designated SoundExchange as the organization charged with collecting royalty payments and statements of account submitted by eligible licensees and with distributing royalties to the copyright owners and performers entitled to receive them under the section 112 and 114 licenses.
As the Collective, SoundExchange may, only once a year, conduct an audit of a licensee for any or all of the prior three calendar years in order to verify royalty payments.
That’s exactly what it is doing in this case; SoundExchange must first file with the judges a notice of intent to audit a licensee and deliver the notice to the licensee.
