§ 382.6 - Handling Confidential Information.

§ 382.6 Verification of statements of accountHandling Confidential Information.

(a) General. This section prescribes general rules pertaining to the verification of the statements of account by interested parties according to terms promulgated by the Copyright Royalty Board.

(b) Frequency of verification. Interested parties may conduct a single audit of a nonexempt preexisting subscription service during any given calendar year.

(c) Notice of intent to audit. Interested parties must submit a notice of intent to audit a particular service to the Copyright Royalty Board, which shall publish in the Federal Register a notice announcing the receipt of the notice of intent to audit within 30 days of the filing of the interested party's notice. Such notification of intent to audit shall also be delivered at the same time to the party to be audited.

(d) Retention of records. The party requesting the verification procedure shall retain the report of the verification for a period of three years from the date of completion of the verification process.

(e) Acceptable verification procedure. An audit, including underlying paperwork, which was performed in the ordinary course of business according to generally accepted auditing standards by an independent and Qualified Auditor, shall serve as an acceptable verification procedure for all parties.

(f) Costs of the verification procedure. The interested party or parties requesting the verification procedure shall pay all costs of the verification procedure, unless an independent and Qualified Auditor concludes that during the period audited, the Licensee underpaid royalties by an amount of five (5) percent or more; in which case, the service that made the underpayment shall bear the costs of the verification procedure.

(g) Interested parties. For purposes of this section, interested parties are those Copyright Owners who are entitled to receive royalty fees pursuant to

Definition. For purposes of this part, “Confidential Information” means the Statements of Account and any information contained therein, including the amount of royalty payments and any information pertaining to the Statements of Account reasonably designated as confidential by the party submitting the statement. Confidential Information does not include documents or information that at the time of delivery to the Collective is public knowledge. The party seeking information from the Collective based on a claim that the information sought is a matter of public knowledge shall have the burden of proving to the Collective that the requested information is in the public domain.

(b) Use of Confidential Information. The Collective may not use any Confidential Information for any purpose other than royalty collection and distribution and activities related directly thereto.

(c) Disclosure of Confidential Information. The Collective shall limit access to Confidential Information to:

(1) Employees, agents, consultants, and independent contractors of the Collective, subject to an appropriate written confidentiality agreement, who are engaged in the collection and distribution of royalty payments hereunder and activities related directly thereto who require access to the Confidential Information for the purpose of performing their duties during the ordinary course of their work;

(2) A Qualified Auditor or outside counsel who is authorized to act on behalf of:

(i) The Collective with respect to verification of a Licensee's statement of account pursuant to this part; or

(ii) A Copyright Owner or Performer with respect to the verification of royalty distributions pursuant to this part;

(3) Copyright Owners and Performers, including their designated agents, whose works a Licensee used under the statutory licenses set forth in 17 U.S.C.

114

112(

g),

e) and 114 by the Licensee whose Confidential Information is being supplied, subject to an appropriate written confidentiality agreement, and including those employees, agents, consultants, and independent contractors of such Copyright Owners and Performers and their designated agents,

or the Collective.

[72 FR 71796, Dec. 19, 2007. Redesignated at 78 FR 23096, Apr. 17, 2013 and amended at 78 FR 23097, Apr. 17, 2013]

subject to an appropriate written confidentiality agreement, who require access to the Confidential Information to perform their duties during the ordinary course of their work;

(4) Attorneys and other authorized agents of parties to proceedings under 17 U.S.C. 112 or 114, acting under an appropriate protective order.

(d) Safeguarding Confidential Information. The Collective and any person authorized to receive Confidential Information from the Collective must implement procedures to safeguard against unauthorized access to or dissemination of Confidential Information using a reasonable standard of care, but no less than the same degree of security that the recipient uses to protect its own Confidential Information or similarly sensitive information.