Category 2

Government sponsored or conducted writings turned over to commercial source subject to conditions and restrictions

Number of publications for which copyright

resides with

Permission to reprint part
or all of publication

Per-
centage

(aver

age) of

charges

Author,
but as-
signed to

Pub

Author

lisher

Govern-
ment or

Govern

ment

Pub-
lisher,
but as-
signed to
Govern-
ment or
Govern-

official

ment

Atomic Energy Com-
mission.

official

33

1 Publisher must submit to AEC all denials for reproduction.

cretion? approval?

COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES,
Washington, January 20, 1950.

B-88494.

Hon. JOHN J. DEVINY,

Public Printer.

MY DEAR MR. DEVINY: Reference is made to letter of this Office, B-88494, dated August 25, 1949, wherein you were advised that an investigation would be made into the propriety of certain contracts referred to in your letter of July 29, and that action would be taken by this Office in accordance with the results of such investigation.

Inasmuch as the Office of Scientific Research and Development, as such, no longer is in existence and because of the similarity of the contracts involved, the investigation was limited to the contract between the Atomic Energy Commission and the Trustees of Columbia University, and a related_contract between the Atomic Energy Commission and the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc.

Contract No. AT-30-1-GEN-72 between the Atomic Energy Commission and the Trustees of Columbia University provides for studies and investigations in the field of nuclear physics. By supplemental agreement No. 4 dated October 15, 1947, such contract was amended to provide, in substance, that the contractor arrange for the publication of a technical series of declassified reports and possibly a technical series of classified reports concerning atomic energy research with the provision that the Atomic Energy Commission furnish, at its own expense, all copy in final form for photographic reproduction. Pursuant to such supplemental agreement, the Trustees of Columbia University, on May 24, 1948, by subcontract No. 4, contracted with the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., for the publication, sale and distribution of the "National Nuclear Energy Series" as approved for release to the public by the Atomic Energy Commission. The subcontract also sets forth that the Atomic Energy Commission shall provide the master copies of each volume with pages scaled according to specification; that the subcontractor will bear the expense of publication, sale, and distribution; will pay to the Treasurer of the United States specified royalties upon copies sold; will negotiate with the Atomic Energy Commission on the basis of actual cost for the delivery of copies of a restricted edition; and, as amended, by modification No. 1, will furnish 500 free copies of each volume to the Atomic Energy Commission.

Contract No. AT-40-1-GEN-209 between the Atomic Energy Commission and McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., provides that the latter will be reimbursed on a cost-without-profit basis for its expenses in furnishing the services of its employees in connection with the preparation for publication of the "National Nuclear Energy Series."

By letter of October 26, 1949, the Chairman, Atomic Energy Commission, was invited to furnish an expression of his views with regard to the propriety of securing the publication of the “National Nuclear Energy Series" in the manner outlined above. In reply thereto, the Chairman, by letter of November 14, 1949, outlined in detail the problems involved in producing the publication in question. It appears from a reading of said letter that, in pursuing such course, the Commission relied on the provisions of section 1(b) (2) of the Atomic Energy Act of 1946, approved August 1, 1946, 60 Stat. 756, wherein it is stated that one of the purposes of the act is to provide “A program for the control of scientific and technical information which will permit the dissemination of such information to encourage scientific progress," and section 10(a)(2) thereof which provides "That the dissemination of scientific and technical information relating to atomic energy should be permitted and encouraged so as to provide that free interchange of ideas and criticisms which is essential to scientific progress." Also, it is pointed out by the Chairman that the furnishing to the Atomic Energy Commission of 500 copies of each volume, and publication, sale and distribution of the volumes is to be performed without cost to the Government and that plans to publish a classified series have been abandoned. It is further explained, in effect, that the services for which reimbursement was made to the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., were not reproduction or publication services such as your Office is prepared to furnish but were professional editorial services performed in the preparation of the manuscript. Also, it appears that the special composing typewriters used to arrange the manuscript in final form for photographing were

property of the Comimssion and constituted no part of the cost for which the contractor received reimbursement.

In view of the broad authority conferred upon the Atomic Energy Commission by the act of August 1, 1946, supra, and since the contracts in question do not involve an expenditure of Government funds for costs of actual printing and binding, it does not appear that this Office would be justified in taking any further action in the matter.

Sincerely yours,

(Signed) LINDSAY C. WARREN, Comptroller General of the United States.

Mr. HALEY. Thank you for your time.
(The analysis referred to by Mr. Haley follows:)

JULY 14, 1966.

DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Reference is made to your letter dated July 1, 1966, relating to H.R. 15638, a bill to provide for the collection, compilation, critical evaluation, publication, and sale of standard reference data and specifically to Section 5 of this bill which would authorize the production and sale of the referenced material without having to comply with pertinent sections of U.S.C. Title 44.

In consonance with the understanding stated in your referenced letter, the Joint Committee on Printing is pleased to furnish its views on H.R. 15638, which are concurred in by the Public Printer and other interested officials in the Government Printing Office.

The stated purpose of H.R. 15638 is to strengthen and enhance the policy of Congress to make critically evaluated reference data readily available to scientists, engineers, and the general public. In order to achieve this objective, the Joint Committee on Printing is concerned regarding the language of the bill which would disregard the provision of section 11 of the Act of May 1, 1919 (ch. 86, 40 Stat. 1270; U.S.C. 111) and thereby permit printing to be done elsewhere than at the Government Printing Office.

The present capability of the Government Printing Office for type composition is already the largest and most varied of any single printing facility. With the addition of the Electronic Composing System, now being acquired by that office, the composition capability will be the most advanced in any printing facility in the world. The Electronic Composition System will accept information recorded on magnetic tape and output this information at a speed of up to 1,000 characters per second in the form of complete typeset pages on film ready for platemaking and printing. The system is part of a total Government-wide system of recording, storing, and retrieving information by the use of computers and associated devices. It is the fruit of four years of effort by the Federal Electronic Printing Committee, the membership of which includes a representative of the Department of Commerce. Since the Standard Reference Data compilations will almost certainly be produced from computer sources, the Electronic Composition System offers the capability of producing economically a printout of high graphic arts quality at high speed from computerized data. The speed and ability to update information offered by the system cannot be equalled by the employment of other composition methods.

Under the existing authority of sections 1152 and 1156 of Title 15, U.S.C., the Commerce Clearinghouse of the Department of Commerce can take the data produced by the Bureau of Standards and achieve effective publication and distribution by the following procedure whenever sale and distribution by the Superintendent of Documents is not desirable:

1. The Bureau of Standards can furnish manuscript and/or tape to the Government Printing Office.

2. The Government Printing Office can perform composition for and deliver reproducibles on film to the Bureau of Standards. (B.S. thus controls quality and format in presentation of data.)

3. The Bureau of Standards can sell reproducibles to any and all persons who will agree to publish the material using the reproducibles sold to them at Bureau of Standards price and who agree not to make alterations in the pages.