National Cable Television Association v. Copyright Royalty Tribunal American Society of Composers Authors and Publishers’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 district ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 12 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “[t]he Act’s compulsory license enables cable systems to offer subscribers essentially three types of “basic” service: (a) signals of local stations that are otherwise poorly received, (b) national programming from affiliates of the three commercial networks, regardless of the location of the broadcast station, and (c) non-network or “syndicated,” programming originating in a community distant from the cable system. As a result of secondary transmissions, advertisers supporting the first two types of programming reach a larger portion of their intended audience (local and national, respectively). Thus, cable carriage permits the originating station to raise its advertising rates and thereby increase its payments to program producers. The market does not, however, as naturally compensate the owners of syndicated programming initially broadcast in communities remote from the cable system. Such programming is generally sponsored by local advertisers with little or no interest in the distant cable audience. Consequently, the Copyright Act requires cable operators to pay royalties as a function of the “distant signal equivalents” (DSEs) they carry. Since it would be impractical for each operator to pay the copyright owners of syndicated pro gramming directly, the Act obliges the operators to pay fees into a royalty pool controlled by the Tribunal which, in turn, determines the appropriate share for different types of copyright owners. The fees are calculated as a percentage of gros”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Cablevision Co. v. Motion Picture Ass'n of America, Inc.

2. “We wish to emphasize ... that precisely because of the technical and discretionary nature of the Tribunal’s work, we must especially insist that it weigh all the relevant considerations and that it set out its conclusions in a form that permits us to determine whether it has exercised its responsibilities lawfully. Courts may not make the judgments entrusted to politically-accountable institutions. They can and must, however, ensure that those judgments provide a basis for popular review by requiring that the choices they reflect are informed by the views of all interested parties and are fully disclosed.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Christian Broadcasting Network, Inc. v. Copyright Royalty Tribunal

3. “[i]f satisfied that the agency has taken a hard look at the issues with the use of reasons and standards, the court will uphold its findings, though of less than ideal clarity, if the agency’s path may reasonably be discerned, though of course the court must not be left to guess as to the agency’s findings or reasons.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. National Ass'n of Broadcasters v. Copyright Royalty Tribunal