CBI Moves To Bifurcate New CARP

While CIS continues work on the D.C. Circuit appeal asking the Court of Appeals to reverse the Librarian of Congress's Order setting royalty rates for digital transmissions of recordings, the Copyright Office is already preparing for new CARP hearings to set the royalty rates for 2003-2004.  Collegiate Broadcasters Inc. (CBI) is participating in the new CARP Proceeding to ensure that educational stations' special needs and views are represented this time around.
On February 25, 2003, CIS on behalf of CBI filed papers (see previous entry), asking the Copyright Office to bifurcate the CARP proceedings into two stages, with the commercial participants and copyright owners presenting their cases first and the noncommercial participants, including CBI, presenting their cases later, in stage II.  CBI's proposal would comply with the schedule Congress set for settlement negotiations in the Small Webcaster Settlement Act last fall, improving the chances that CBI and other noncommercial groups and stations and RIAA/SoundExchange can arrive at a fair compromise.  It would also lower noncommercial stations' costs to participate if no compromise is reached.  
On March 5, multiple other noncommercial entities filed papers supporting CBI's Motion, including National Federation of Community Broadcasters, WCPE, Oregon State University's KBVR, University of Louisiana at Monroe's KXUL, and Plymouth-Canton Community Schools' WSDP.  In a separate pleading, Intercollegiate Broadcasting Systems and WHRB also stated that they would support procedural separation of the noncommercial webcasters fom the rest of the 2003-04 CARP.