DC Circuit Upholds Ruling Against Independent Producers Group's Sports Programming Claims
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit upheld the Copyright Royalty Board’s (CRB) 2013 ruling that the Independent Producers Group (IPG) didn’t have a claim on the 2000-2003 sports programming and program suppliers royalties awarded to the Fédération…
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Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), MPAA and the U.S. Olympic Committee. The CRB had said IPG “had not established its authority to represent” either FIFA or the U.S. Olympic Committee, the court said Tuesday. IPG appealed the CRB ruling as “arbitrary and capricious.” The D.C. Circuit said it agreed with the CRB’s analysis, saying “no basis exists for overturning the Board’s reasoned decision to reject IPG’s sports programming claims on behalf of FIFA and the U.S. Olympic Committee.” The D.C. Circuit also rejected IPG’s complaints against the CRB’s decision to award royalties in the program suppliers category to MPAA on behalf of other claimants, saying no claimant objected to MPAA’s authority to act on its behalf. MPAA also “supplied agreements with the claimants’ agents, and the Board had no reason to doubt the authenticity of those agreements,” the D.C. Circuit said.