The register of copyrights has issued an opinion clarifying which entities can qualify as pre-existing subscription services. The register had been asked to determine whether:
the universe of pre-existing subscription services – defined in 17 USC § 114(j)(11) as services which perform sound recordings by means of noninteractive audio-only subscription digital audio transmissions and which were in existence and making such transmissions to the public for a fee on or before July 31 1998 – [is] limited by law to only Muzak (provided over the DiSH Network), Music Choice and DMX.
The
Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) establishes a market-based system for setting royalty rates paid to copyright owners of sound recordings by entities performing those recordings. Under 17 USC §114(f)(2)(B), rates and terms are established "that most clearly represent the rates and terms that would have been negotiated in the marketplace between a willing buyer and a willing seller." Congress,
