The Reexamination of Cable Television's Compulsory Licensing Royalty Rates: The Copyright Royalty Tribunal and the Marketplace

This article examines the compulsory licensing royalty rates which the Copyright Revision Act of 1976 imposed on cable operators. The authors assert that changing conditions in the cable industry have eliminated the original need for a strict royalty schedule, and that the Copyright Royalty Tribunal, in its discretion, should adopt new rates which reflect those reasonably charged in the marketplace. The authors additionally argue that Congress itself should use this marketplace approach to amend the statutory rates applied to distant signal programming retransmitted by cable.