Sec. 76.159  Requirements for invocation of protection.

    For a station licensee to be eligible to invoke the provisions of 
this subpart, 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 Sec. 76.151 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 (a) the contract

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is amended to include the specific language referenced above or (b) 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.

[ 54 FR 12919 , Mar. 29, 1989]