Small claims for songs: how the US Copyright Claims Board works for musicians

Most copyright disputes a working musician runs into are too small for federal court. A brand uses your beat in a regional ad, a podcast loops your track as its theme, a small label presses your song on a compilation without asking. The fees for a lawyer would swallow anything you recovered. The US Copyright Claims Board (CCB) was built for exactly that gap. Here is how it works, what the numbers say, and when it is worth your time.

What is the Copyright Claims Board?

The CCB is a tribunal inside the US Copyright Office, set up by the CASE Act of 2020, and it began accepting claims in June 2022. It is a voluntary alternative to federal court. Everything runs online through a system called eCCB, and hearings are held by video, so you never need to travel to Washington.

It hears three kinds of claim, set out in 17 U.S.C. § 1504(c):

• Infringement: someone copied, distributed or performed your work without permission.
• Declaration of non-infringement: you ask the Board to confirm that what you did does not infringe.
• DMCA misrepresentation: someone sent a false takedown notice (or counter-notice) about your work.

That third one gets less attention than it deserves. If a bogus takedown knocked your track offline, the CCB is a cheap place to push back.

What can you win, and what does it cost?

The ceiling is $30,000 in total damages per proceeding. Within that, statutory damages are capped at $15,000 per work, against up to $150,000 per work for wilful infringement in federal court. If you choose the smaller claims track, for claims of $5,000 or less, a single Copyright Claims Officer decides the case and the result carries the same weight.

Filing costs $100 in two parts: $40 when you file, and $60 only if the respondent does not opt out. Each side usually pays its own legal costs; fees are awarded only for bad faith, normally up to $5,000, or costs only up to $2,500 if the party receiving them represented itself. You don't need a lawyer, and the statute lets you bring one or a qualifying law student if you want.

The Board cannot issue an injunction in the usual sense. It can only order someone to stop if they agree to stop and that agreement is on the record.

The three conditions that decide your claim

1. Registration. You cannot file until you have at least applied to register the work. The Board cannot rule until a certificate is issued, and if the Office refuses registration, the claim is dismissed without prejudice. If you need speed, eCCB offers expedited registration for $50 per work. Timing also changes the money: a work registered within three months of first publication (or before the infringement started) can get up to $15,000. A work registered late is capped at $7,500 per work and $15,000 per proceeding. That is still better than federal court, where late registration usually rules out statutory damages altogether. For what registration costs, see our coverage of Copyright Office fees.

Remember that a song and a recording are two separate copyrights. You can register both on one application only if the same claimant owns both. If you co-wrote the song with someone else, or a label owns the master, check which work is actually yours to claim.

2. The respondent must be in the US. Claims against people or companies residing outside the US are excluded, and service can only happen inside the US. You can be a claimant from anywhere: 291 claimants in the CCB's own figures lived outside the US. But the infringer has to be reachable at a US address. Claims against federal or state government bodies are also excluded.

3. They must not opt out. After you serve the claim, the respondent has 60 days to opt out in writing. If they do, the case ends, you keep the right to sue in federal court, and their opt-out can't be held against them. If they ignore the notice entirely, the Board can issue a default determination, including damages.

You also have a deadline: the claim must be filed within three years of the infringement.

What the numbers show

The CCB's statistics sheet, covering June 2022 to March 2026, counts 1,920 claims filed. Music is a small slice: sound recordings were 10% of works and musical compositions 5%, well behind pictorial and graphic works (36%) and motion pictures (26%). Of all claims, 47% used the smaller-claims track, and 67% of claimants represented themselves.

The disposition figures are the more sobering part:

• 787 claims dismissed after compliance review
• 272 dismissed because valid proof of service was never filed
• 168 ended because the respondent opted out
• 155 settled, and another 154 withdrawn with settlement status unknown
• 25 final determinations in contested cases, and 22 by default

Our reading: the CCB's biggest obstacle isn't opt-outs. Claimants dropping out on paperwork is. The 787 compliance dismissals and 272 service failures together outnumber opt-outs more than six to one. That points to people filing claims that don't meet the rules, or not finishing the steps after filing.

A worked example

Say you are a producer who self-released an instrumental in January and registered the sound recording and composition (you own both) in February. In June you find a US coffee chain using it in a social ad. You file a smaller claim for $4,000: $40 up front. You serve the company at its US address and file proof of service on time. They have 60 days. If they opt out, you have spent $40 and some hours, and you have a documented paper trail for a demand letter or federal suit. If they stay in, you pay the remaining $60 and the case proceeds, or, as in many CCB cases, it settles.

Now change one fact: the infringer is a company based in Toronto with no US presence. The CCB can't hear it.

Checklist before you file

• Is the work registered, or at least applied for? Is the registration date within three months of release?
• Do you own the right you are claiming: the composition, the recording, or both?
• Is the respondent a private party you can serve at a US address?
• Did the infringement happen within the last three years?
• Have you saved evidence: links, screenshots, dates, your release date and registration number?
• Have you sent a short, polite demand first? A settlement is often the fastest outcome.
• Can you meet the deadlines, especially proof of service, without a lawyer chasing them?

What we think

The CCB is a good idea held back by two design choices. Because it is voluntary, we expect the respondents most likely to opt out to be those with lawyers on call, meaning larger companies; the CCB does not publish who opts out, so this is our inference, not its data. That makes it a tool for disputes between small parties more than a lever against big ones. The US-residence rule also leaves out much of the infringement musicians actually see, which happens on global platforms with uploaders anywhere.

Still, for an independent musician in a dispute with a US business that clearly copied them, $40 to start is the cheapest serious enforcement option there is. The winners are artists who register promptly and keep tidy records; the losers are those who register only after something goes wrong, who face lower caps and a wait for a certificate before the Board can rule. The practical lesson is the one the statistics keep repeating: register your releases on time, and treat the procedural steps as seriously as the claim itself.