Media Contact:
Matthew Berry, (202) 418-2005
matthew.berry@fcc.gov
For Immediate Release
STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER AJIT PAI
On Copyright Office’s Set-Top Box Submission
WASHINGTON, DC, August 4, 2016.— The Copyright Office’s devastating critique of the 
FCC’s misguided set-top box scheme should be the final nail in the coffin.  The Copyright Office 
explains in painstaking detail how the FCC’s scheme would unfairly infringe the rights of content creators 
and hamper their ability to invest in new programming.  The Copyright Office also exposes how the FCC 
misled the public about its proposal.  Here are just two examples.
Chairman Wheeler has said, “This proposal will not interfere with the business relationships or 
content agreements between MVPDs and their content providers or between MVPDs and their 
customers.”
The Copyright Office, however, has rejected that assertion.  It concluded that “it appears 
inevitable that many negotiated conditions upon which copyright owners license their works to MVPDs 
would not be honored under the Proposed Rule.”  
Moreover, when asked on February 18, 2016, if the FCC’s proposal would specifically prohibit 
extra advertising, Chairman Wheeler’s response was “Yes, sir.”
But that’s not what the Copyright Office says.  It has concluded that “the Proposed Rule would 
appear to allow [third-party devices and applications] to add additional advertising as part of the 
programming stream, e.g., advertising spots before or after an on-demand video or banner advertising 
next to or overlaid on top of a program, without any requirement that resulting advertising revenue be 
shared with either the MVPD or the content creator.”
It is long past time for the FCC’s leadership to walk away from its deeply flawed set-top box 
scheme.  Instead, the Commission should focus on ways to ditch the set-top box and embrace the video 
marketplace of the future.
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Office of Commissioner Ajit Pai: (202) 418-2000
Twitter: @AjitPaiFCC
www.fcc.gov/leadership/ajit-pai