How does the money get from the Copyright Office to the copyright owners?
To be eligible to collect royalties for any particular year, copyright owners must file a claim with the Copyright Office in July. To keep costs down and make the process simple and quick, various copyright groups (similar to collectives) formed in response to the Copyright Revision Act. These groups generally represent producers, distributors, or broadcasters who own the copyright to similar types of programs, e.g. Sports. There are eight copyright groups that are known as the Phase I Claimants to cable retransmission royalties. They are: Program Suppliers Music Joint Sports Devotional Public Television Canadian Claimants Commercial TV National Public Radio These groups receive lump sum cheques from the Copyright Office and then re-allocate the money to their individual members, based on their own criteria. These are also the groups that can, on behalf of their members, say that they agree, or disagree, with distribution to themselves and each other based on percentages previously est
