Mr. CHARLES F. DUCANDER, Executive Director and Chief Counsel, Washington, D.C. THE LIBRARIAN OF CONGRESS, Washington, D.C., June 22, 1966. DEAR MR. DUCANDER: In response to your request of June 20, 1966, I am pleased to forward my comments on H.R. 15638, a bill to provide for the collection, compilation, critical evaluation, publication, and sale of standard reference data. I support the stated policy of the bill, which is "to make critically evaluated reference data readily available to scientists, engineers, and the general public.” However, in carrying out this commendable policy, the bill contains a provision which I believe is in serious conflict with existing law. Section 7(b) prohibits any person, without written authorization, from copying "any data compilation bearing the Standard Reference Data symbol or mark adopted pursuant to section 6," and section 8(a) provides a civil penalty of up to $100 for "each copy of a publication which violates any provision of section 7." A copyright is, in essence, the legal recognition of exclusive rights, notably the rights of copying and publication, in works of authorship, including compilations. Thus, sections 7 and 8 of the bill seem intended to create the equivalent of a copyright, but with protection which, unlike the present law, is perpetual in duration and free of the safeguards written into the present law to protect users and the public. This, of course, raises a number of serious problems. The first stems from Article I, section 8 of the Constitution, which grants Congress the power". to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." Since section 7(b) of the bill in effect grants the equivalent of a copyright for an unlimited period, there is doubt whether the provision is consistent with the Constitutional limitation. Moreover, even if a time limitation were placed on the protection granted by the bill, I would question the justification for granting special exclusive rights in material coming within the subject matter of the copyright statute in a way that is inconsistent with that statute. Title 17 contains a number of provisions, including those dealing with publication, notice, and registration, that have been carefully worked out to govern all copyrightable subject matter, and that seem equally applicable here. Of particular importance is section 8 of Title 17, which has provided since 1909 that "No copyright shall subsist in . . . any publication of the United States Government . . . . A similar prohibition has existed in the Printing Law since 1895 (44 U.S.C. 58). These provisions reflect a long-standing Congressional policy of permitting "Government publications" (i.e., works written by Government employees as part of their official duties or employment) to be freely copied. Since sections 7 and 8 of H.R. 15638 are directly contradictory of that policy, they raise a significant policy question. There is now pending in the Congress a bill (H.R. 4347) for the general revision of the present copyright law. Section 105 of that bill would continue the present prohibition against the copyrighting of Government publications. Extensive hearings were held on the bill from May to September, 1965, and a number of Government witnesses, including those representing the Departments of State. Treasury, Commerce, and Health, Education, and Welfare, testified in support of the prohibition. Representatives of the Department of Defense and of the Atomic Energy Commission urged a provision that would permit a Government copyright in special cases and under carefully safeguarded conditions. H.R. 4347 is at present under study by Subcommittee No. 3 of the House Judiciary Committee, which to date has held 34 executive sessions on the bill. The Copyright Office devoted a good deal of time to exploring the issue of copyright in Government works in the course of the program for general revision of the copyright law. The conclusions reached are embodied in the Supplemen tary Report of the Register of Copyrights, at page 10. The Report found that there were some cases in which copyright in a Government work would do no harm and might benefit the public, but that these rare cases did not warrant setting up the very elaborate procedures required to evaluate them. We believe that, if an exception to the prohibition can be shown to be justified in a particular case, the appropriate method of dealing with it is by specific legislation allowing a copyright under the provisions and requirements of Title 17. An example of this approach is the Act of January 27, 1932 (52 Stat. 6), which appears as an exception to the general prohibition of section 8 of Title 17. I urge that the Committee consider H.R. 15638 in the light of the problems pointed out in this letter. If it finds that, because of the exceptional nature of the data compilations that are the subject matter of the bill, exclusive rights should be granted to prohibit their unauthorized copying and publication, the bill should be reworded to accomplish this purpose under general copyright principles and the provisions of Title 17, U.S. Code. Sincerely yours, JOHN G. LORENZ, Acting Librarian of Congress. Hon. GEORGE P. MILLER, COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, Chairman, Committee on Science and Astronautics, DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Reference is made to letter dated June 20, 1966, from the Executive Director and Chief Counsel of your Committee requesting our comments on H.R. 15638, a bill to provide for the collection, compilation, critical evaluation, publication, and sale of standard reference data. Our Office has no special information regarding the desirability of the legislation. Consequently, and since it appears that the matter is primarily a question of policy for determination by the Congress, we offer no recommendations concerning the merits of the bill. Sincerely yours, FRANK H. WEITZEL, Assistant Comptroller General of the United States. 154 NON-FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, INORGANIC MATERIALS RESEARCH LABORATORY, Representative EMILIO Q. DADDARIO, Chairman, Subcommittee on Science, Research and Development, Committee on Science and Astronautics, House of Representatives, Washington, D.C. DEAR SIR: I am happy to have the opportunity to submit my comments on H.R. 15638 to your committee. The rate of growth of our science and technology depends strongly upon the availability of information. In recognition of the importance of wide dissemination of scientific data, considerable expenditures have been made by various government agencies and industrial firms for data compilations. Unfortunately a considerable portion of these expenditures has been wasted as many of these compilations have not been critically evaluated and have been less than worthless in that they have misled and confused scientists and engineers who have attempted to apply these compilations. The difficulty arises from the fact that scientific data are pouring out of thousands of laboratories all over the world. They are produced in a variety of equipment and by many different methods of varying reliability. They are reported in many different journals and in a variety of units and formats. It is difficult for scientists and engineers who have not specialized in the types of experiments reported to evaluate the reliabilities of the various reported data and to convert them to compatible and consistent bases of comparison. It is of great importance in the application of technical data to insure that the data from a variety of sources have been evaluated and transformed to a consistent basis. Otherwise serious discrepancies will be introduced that can invalidate the conclusions drawn from the information. The critically evaluated compilation "Selected Values of Chemical Thermodynamic Properties" (National Bureau of Standards Circular 500) is an example of the type of compilation that presents consistent data that can be used by scientists and engineers in all fields. This compilation has been widely used for many applications. It is of greatest importance that compilations of this type be expanded in scope to include other types of data and that they be carried out on a continuing basis to digest the flood of new data and convert them to a consistent critically evaluated form which can be used with confidence in all areas of our technology. It takes a great deal of careful work by highly trained scientists to produce critically evaluated compilations such as NBS Circular 500. The effort is small compared to the total effort required on the part of many individuals who must prepare their own compilations when they are not available. In those areas where critically evaluated compilations are not available, engineers and scientists often do without the use of available information to the detriment of their work, or, because of their lack of experience with the particular methods used to obtain the data, they may improperly evaluate the data and draw erroneous conclusions which can handicap them in the development of their work. The effort required to cope with the tremendous outpouring of information is a larger one than could be managed by any government agency or the combined efforts of all the agencies. It is an important feature of H.R. 15638 that the Secretary of Commerce is directed to utilize not only the reference data services of the various governmental agencies but any other compiling activities that meet the standards of the Standard Reference Data Program also are to be coordinated to insure consistency and to avoid duplication. There are many individuals who evaluate and compile the data pertaining to their narrow speciality. The Standard Reference Data Act provides the means of making the results of these expert evaluations available to all scientists and engineers in a form that is consistent with the rest of the data compiled under the Standard Reference Data Program. These activities can often be added to the Standard Reference Data Program with no expenditures on the part of the Department of Commerce. In summary, the Standard Reference Data Program that is set up under H.R. 15638 is of the greatest importance to our technology in eliminating wasteful duplication of compilations and ineffective non-critically evaluated compilations. The availability of reliable information will be an important stimulant to our technology. Respectfully yours, LEO BREWER, Head, Inorganic Materials Research Laboratory. |