The US Copyright Claims Board will hear a music infringement claim for a 100 dollar filing fee, and what it can award depends on a decision made at release rather than at dispute. If the recording was registered within three months of first publication, statutory damages are capped at 15,000 dollars per work. If it was registered later, the cap is 7,500.
CCB means Copyright Claims Board, a three-officer tribunal inside the US Copyright Office hearing disputes worth up to 30,000 dollars since June 2022. It is the only route to a binding US infringement award without a federal lawsuit.
What the board can award, and what halves it
Statutory damages are money awarded without proving a specific financial loss. Chapter 22 of the CCB Handbook sets out the two tiers.
- Registered within three months of first publication, or before the infringement began: up to 15,000 dollars per infringed work, 30,000 dollars per proceeding.
- Registered after that: up to 7,500 dollars per work, 15,000 dollars per proceeding.
- Smaller claims track: every cap drops to 5,000 dollars and a single officer decides.
The board cannot consider whether the infringement was willful, so there is no bad-faith premium to argue for, and the handbook warns that awards with no evidence of actual loss sit nearer the 750 dollar statutory floor than the cap. It also has no injunction power.
Where claims actually die
The board’s own key statistics, covering June 2022 to March 2026, record 1,920 claims filed and only 47 final determinations: 25 contested and 22 by default. The dispositions explain the gap.
- 787 claims dismissed after compliance review.
- 272 dismissed because valid proof of service was never filed.
- 168 ended with the respondent opting out, an option open for 60 days after service.
- 155 settled.
The CASE Act Report from the Register of Copyrights, February 2026, states the problem plainly: as of 31 December 2025 only 43 percent of claims filed were found compliant, and 63 percent had drawn at least one noncompliance order. Two-thirds of claimants were self-represented. Writing for IPWatchdog on 16 February 2026, Rose Esfandiari set out the Office’s proposed fixes.
Music is 15 percent of the docket
Sound recordings are 10 percent of CCB claims and musical works another 5 percent. For an exporting label, the number that matters is 291 claimants lived outside the United States. The board hears claims against US residents, so a Lagos or Bogota rights holder can pursue a US-based infringer for 100 dollars, paid in two instalments, without US counsel.
Registration is the part a distributor does not do
An ISRC is a recording identifier, not a copyright claim. Delivery metadata gets you paid; registration is what gives the board something to award on. The Copyright Office’s group option, GRAM, covers an album in one filing.
Two applications, not one
GRAM/PA registers up to 20 musical works from an album. GRAM/SR registers up to 20 sound recordings plus the artwork and liner notes published with them. Both cost 65 dollars, so a label owning both sides files twice. The works need a shared author or common co-author, one claimant, one country of first publication and, as a rule, one publication date.
That price is moving. The proposed fee schedule sent to Congress on 14 July 2026 takes GRAM/PA to 85 dollars and GRAM/SR to 130, and the Register may institute them 120 days after submission unless Congress disapproves. We covered what that schedule does to music filings in September.
The calendar rule
Expedited registration exists for claimants who file only once a dispute starts, but by then the 7,500 dollar tier is locked in. The cheaper discipline is a standing rule: a GRAM filing inside 90 days of every release date, logged against the UPC your distributor delivered.
For unlicensed uses, send a takedown notice first, since the CCB cannot compel removal, then claim the money. Where a distribution agreement controls who may send notices, that clause decides whether you can move at all, the trap Peru’s three-day takedown clock exposed.
A distributor delivers and reports. No distributor registers your copyrights, and none can make a late registration timely after the fact. One calendar entry per release is worth double the ceiling.
