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What's New

On November 14, 2012, the Licensing Division expanded its outreach efforts by launching the first issue of a quarterly newsletter, The Licensing Connection. (TLC Newsletter)

On September 27, 2012, the Licensing Division achieved an important milestone in its re-engineering effort: we launched the first pilot of our new online royalty statement of account system. (Read More)

The Register of Copyrights Announces Priorities, Special Projects for 2011-2013. (Read document.)

Licensing NewsNet

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NewsNet is a free electronic newsletter to alert the licensing community to updates on regulations and procedures for compulsory and statutory licenses. Subscribe to NewsNet. 

Licensing Division

The Licensing Division in the Copyright Office administers the compulsory and statutory licenses in the Copyright Act (title 17 of the U.S. Code). The division collects royalty fees from cable operators for retransmitting television and radio broadcasts (section 111), from satellite carriers for retransmitting non-network and network signals (section 119), and from importers or manufacturers for distributing digital audio recording products (section 1003). The division deducts its full operating costs from the royalty fees and invests the balance in interest-bearing securities with the U.S. Treasury for later distribution to copyright owners (see Report of Receipts). For further information read Circular 75, The Licensing Division of the Copyright Office.

Organization of the Division

The Examining Section examines licensing documents submitted for a statutory or compulsory license to determine that they meet the requirements under the statute and Copyright Office regulations, including the correct computation of the royalty fee. A licensing examiner will notify a licensee to correct errors or omissions on a document before final processing by the Copyright Office.

The Fiscal Section performs all accounting, budgeting, and investing functions of the division in conjunction with the Office of the Chief Financial Officer of the Library of Congress and the U. S. Treasury. This section is also responsible for the ascertainment of funds available for distribution by Copyright Royalty Judges.

The Information Section provides information about the compulsory and statutory licenses, maintains all the division’s official licensing records, and performs reference searches of licensing documents for the public and members of Congress. This section is also responsible for examining licensing documents submitted for a statutory or compulsory license to determine that they meet the requirements under the statute and Copyright Office regulations, including the correct computation of the royalty fee.

Types of Licenses

  • Section 111 - Statutory License for Secondary Transmissions by Cable Systems
  • Section 112 - Statutory License for Making Ephemeral Recordings
  • Section 114 - Statutory License for the public performance of Sound Recordings by Means of a Digital Audio Transmission
  • Section 115 - Compulsory License for Making and Distributing Phonorecords
  • Section 118 - Compulsory License for the use of Certain Works in Connection with Non-Commercial Broadcasting
  • Section 119 - Statutory License for Secondary Transmissions for Satellite Carriers
  • Section 122 - Statutory License for Secondary Transmissions by Satellite Carriers for Local Retransmissions
  • Section 1003 - Statutory Obligation for Distribution of Digital Audio Recording Devices and Media (Chapter 10)
EFT Information

Effective October 1, 2006, all statutory license royalty fee payments must be paid by Electronic Funds Transfer. For more information, please read:
  • Circular 74a - How to Make Statutory License Royalty EFT Payments via Wire
  • Circular 74b - How to Make Statutory License Royalty EFT Payments via ACH Credit
  • Circular 74c - How to Make Statutory License Royalty EFT Payments Using Pay.gov
  • EFT Remittance Advice
  • EFT demo (MS PowerPoint file)
  • EFT Form (for refunds only and disbursements only)

Interest Rates

Licensing Division Interest Rate Chart

Distribution Fund

Licensing Division Distribution Fund Chart


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