Interim Copyright Royalty Judge Named

Judge Richard Strasser to step in for retired Judge Stanley Wisniewski

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/17/2012 2:24:01 PM

Librarian of Congress James Billington has named Richard Strasser, senior staff attorney on the Copyright Royalty Board as interim royalty judge for six months or until a replacement can be found for Judge Stanley Wisniewski, who retired at the end of last month.

The judges are part of a statutory body overseeing hundreds of millions of dollars in payments by satellite and cable operators under compulsory licenses. Those blanket licenses allow them to retransmit broadcast programming without negotiating individual payments to the various content providers for each program. Instead they pay into a pool of money then distributed either by private agreement or determination of the judges.

Copyright holders must file annually for their payments from the pool, either by private agreement or a decision by the judges if there are disputes. The Copyright Office has been leaning toward recommending phasing out the blanket license regime in favor of per-program licensing, which could mean more money for content providers but more rights-clearing headaches for distributors.