Title 47

SECTION 76.109

76.109 Requirements for invocation of protection.

§ 76.109 Requirements for invocation of protection.

For a station licensee to be eligible to invoke the provisions of § 76.101, it must have a contract or other written indicia that it holds syndicated exclusivity rights for the exhibition of the program in question. Contracts entered on or after August 18, 1988, must contain the following words: “the licensee [or substitute name] shall, by the terms of this contract, be entitled to invoke the protection against duplication of programming imported under the Compulsory Copyright License, as provided in § 76.101 of the FCC rules [or ‘as provided in the FCC's syndicated exclusivity rules’].” Contracts entered into prior to August 18, 1988, must contain either the foregoing language or a clear and specific reference to the licensee's authority to exercise exclusivity rights as to the specific programming against cable television broadcast signal carriage by the cable system in question upon the contingency that the government reimposed syndicated exclusivity protection. In the absence of such a specific reference in contracts entered into prior to August 18, 1988, the provisions of these rules may be invoked only if the contract is amended to include the specific language referenced in this section or a specific written acknowledgment is obtained from the party from whom the broadcast exhibition rights were obtained that the existing contract was intended, or should now be construed by agreement of the parties, to include such rights. A general acknowledgment by a supplier of exhibition rights that specific contract language was intended to convey rights under these rules will be accepted with respect to all contracts containing that specific language. Nothing in this section shall be construed as a grant of exclusive rights to a broadcaster where such rights are not agreed to by the parties.

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