101
ties without protracted delays in obtaining permissions from copyright owners. Administrative costs for individual clearances would be larger than the royalties paid, and beyond the resources of public broadcasting. The compulsory license is intended to ease public broadcasting’s transition from its previous “not for profit” exemption under the existing copyright law. As such, this provision does not constitute a subsidy of public broadcasting by the copyright proprietors since the amendment requires the payment of copyright royalties reflecting the fair value of the materials used. Furthermore, the compulsory license system extends only to nondramatic literary, musical and pictorial works, and would in no way affect the use of copyrighted material in dramatic works, which would still be freely negotiated. The limitation on the exclusive rights of copyright proprietors by the institution of compulsory licenses has been provided in several other sections of this legislation. The procedures for implementing the compulsory license parallel those provided in other sections of this legislation, but in the interests of establishing well-researched and reasonable rates, the amendment leaves the establishment of initial rates to the Copyright Royalty Tribunal.
The opponents of this section argue that it is unsound, unnecessary and unworkable. It is contended that the section constitutes a serious erosion of the exclusive rights of authors and copyright proprietors. The Register of Copyrights has objected to the “loss of control by authors over the use of their work in a major communications medium, and the dangers of State control and loss of freedom of expression implicit in the proposed system.” The section is unnecessary because private agreements can adequately resolve the copyright problems of public broadcasting. The section will prove burdensome both to public broadcasting and to copyright proprietors. The Register of Copyrights has informed the Committee that “the failure to establish any statutory royalty makes the plan unworkable.”
Works Subject to Compulsory License
Section 118(a) provides, as a limitation on the exclusive rights of copyright owners, that it is not an infringement of copyright for a public broadcasting entity to broadcast, subject to the conditions of this section, any nondramatic literary or musical work, pictorial, graphic, or sculptural work. Clearly excluded from the scope of the compulsory license are plays, operas, ballets and other stage presentations, motion pictures, television programs, documentary films, and audiovisual works. Subsection (e) of Section 118 further provides that the compulsory license shall not apply to unpublished nondramatic literary or musical works or to dramatization rights for non-dramatic literary or musical works.
The compulsory license does include the reading or recital of poems, short stories, or portions of a book. Simple reading or recital of such works is not likely to interfere with the ability of authors to sell a work for film or television dramatization. But the license does not apply to the adaptation or dramatization of such works.
Procedures
The Committee in adopting a compulsory license for public broadcasting has endeavored to integrate the operation of this license with
