Detailed Summary

Satellite Home Viewer Update and Reauthorization Act of 2009 - Requires a satellite carrier whose secondary transmissions are subject to statutory licensing to deposit a filing fee semiannually with the Register of Copyrights.

Declares that a secondary transmission is not an infringement in certain circumstances (such as being made to a federal governmental body designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security) related to preparing for, responding to, or recovering from a major disaster, a catastrophe, an act of terrorism, or a transportation security incident.

Applies statutory licensing provisions to systems of three or more noncommercial educational broadcast stations licensed by a single state, public agency, or political, educational, or special purpose subdivision of a state only if the subscriber is located in a designated market area that is not otherwise eligible to receive the secondary transmission of the primary transmission of such system.

Applies various existing provisions to digital transmissions by removing the word "analog."

Requires a separate royalty fee for each stream of a multicast transmission.

Applies statutory licensing provisions to local-into-local satellite secondary transmission of a low power station's programming, unless the station retransmits programs and signals for more than two hours each day.

Removes provisions requiring statutory licenses for secondary transmissions of significantly viewed signals.

Requires that a specified predictive model be used to determine presumptively whether a person resides in an unserved household with respect to digital signals.

Increases the maximum statutory damages for violation of territorial restrictions: (1) for willful or repeated individual violations, from $5 to $250 per month for each subscriber to whom the secondary transmission was inappropriately sent; and (2) for a willful or repeated pattern of violations, from $250,000 to $2.5 million for each 6-month period.

Extends through December 31, 2014 (under current law, December 31, 2009) the copyright liability moratorium allowing a subscriber who does not receive a signal of Grade A intensity of a local network broadcast station to receive signals of network stations affiliated with the same network, if that subscriber had satellite service terminated after July 11, 1998, and before October 31, 1999 or received such service on October 31, 1999.

Requires statutory licenses for secondary transmissions into a station's local market relating to significantly viewed stations or low power programming.

Increases the maximum statutory damages for violation of territorial restrictions: (1) for willful or repeated individual violations, from $5 to $250 per month for each subscriber to whom the secondary transmission was inappropriately sent; and (2) for of a willful or repeated pattern of violations, from $250,000 to $2.5 million for each 6-month period.

Declares that a secondary transmission is not an infringement if it is made by a cable system in certain circumstances (such as being made to a federal governmental body designated by the Secretary of Homeland Security) related to emergency preparation, response, or recovery.

Modifies requirements regarding the calculation of secondary transmission statutory license semiannual deposits cable systems must make with the Register of Copyrights.

Requires waiver of an injunction that was imposed on a carrier before enactment of this Act because of a willful or repeated pattern or practice of delivering a primary transmission to subscribers who are not eligible to receive the transmission if the carrier is providing local-into-local service to all designated marketing areas and meets other requirements.

Ends, on December 31, 2014, the effectiveness of provisions relating to limitations on exclusive copyright rights regarding secondary transmissions of network and non-network stations for private home viewing.

Status of the Legislation

Latest Major Action: 10/28/2009: Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 182.

Points in Favor

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Points Against

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