Bates White testifies before Copyright Royalty Board
Christopher Bennett and Academic Affiliate Greg Crawford testified before the Copyright Royalty Board on behalf of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) as part of a proceeding to determine the appropriate allocation of royalties that cable systems paid between 2010 and 2013 for their retransmission of distant broadcast television signals. The Copyright Act of 1976 requires that cable system operators submit royalty payments to the Library of Congress to retransmit distant broadcast television signals on their systems. Collected royalty payments are then allocated to eligible claimants based on a negotiated settlement or, in the event of a failure to reach such a settlement, as was the case for the 2010–2013 royalty pool, on the outcome of a proceeding conducted by the Board. Drs. Bennett and Crawford submitted affirmative and rebuttal reports, and testified before the Board on a range of issues with the potential to directly impact the final allocation. In their October 18, 2018, decision, the judges accepted Bates White’s work as the principal basis on which they set the awards.