(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 17 U.S.C. 114(g), 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]