Licensing Overview

Note: The Office strongly encourages you to use the Pay.gov method to make your electronic royalty and filing fee payments for the current filing year and period (2024/1). For more information on how to make statutory license royalty payments, please read Circular 74 and view the tutorial slide deck.

Please Read: Message addressing on-site cable filers UPDATED

Licensing Section Has Ceased Returns of Electronically Submitted Statements

Beginning with the 2023/1 accounting period, the Licensing Section no longer returns signed PDFs of received electronic statements of account (eSOAs). These statements are available on the Licensing Section’s webpage, (Section 111 Statements of Account Electronically Filed with the Copyright Office), and are updated weekly as the section processes the statements.

Statutory Licensing Fiduciary Assets Financial Statements and Independent Auditors’ Report

The Library of Congress contracted with an independent public accounting firm, Sikich CPA LLC, to conduct an audit of the financial statements prepared for the fiduciary assets administered by the Copyright Office Licensing Section. The purpose of this independent audit was to provide an opinion on the fairness of the financial statements in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles, and to report on internal control over financial reporting and compliance with applicable laws and regulations. For more information on the results of the audit, visit the link below.

FY 2023 Report

EFT Information

All statutory license royalty fee payments must be paid by Electronic Funds Transfer. For more information, please read:

Payments

Refunds and Disbursements

Resources

The Licensing Section is responsible for helping to administer the various statutory licenses and similar provisions, including: secondary transmissions of radio and television programs by cable and satellite systems; making and distributing phonorecords of nondramatic musical works; and importing, manufacturing, and distributing digital audio recording devices or media.

In general the section deducts its operating costs from the royalty fees collected and invests the balance in interest-bearing securities with the U.S. Treasury for later distribution to copyright owners. The section also collects filing fees to cover part of the costs in administering the cable and satellite licenses. For further information read Circular 75, The Licensing Section of the Copyright Office.

Visit the Copyright Royalty Board website for information on determination of rates and terms for the copyright statutory licenses and for determinations on distribution of statutory license royalties collected by the Copyright Office.

Types of Licenses

Cable

Section 111 – Statutory License for Secondary Transmissions by Cable Systems

Music

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

Satellite

Section 119 – Statutory License for Secondary Transmissions for Satellite Carriers

Section 122 – Statutory License for Secondary Transmissions by Satellite Carriers for Local Retransmissions

Other Licenses

Section 1003 – Statutory Obligation for Distribution of Digital Audio Recording Devices and Media

Statutory Licensing Fiduciary Assets Audited Financial Statements

Distributions and Financial Statements

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