gnu@hoptoad.uucp (John Gilmore) (01/31/91)
[Followups should go to comp.org.eff.talk to focus discussion in one place.]
EE Times reports that a bill has been introduced which would give
the government the power to copyright software that it (or its
contractors) write. Then some portion of the proceeds would go to
the employees who wrote the software.
I think that if we, the people, pay for some software to be written
with our taxes, it should be in the public domain rather than hoarded.
The story (and probably the bill) emphasizes the payouts to Federal
employees, and barely mentions overturning the prohibition on the
Government owning original copyright on anything.
Part of the reason for the gov't not being able to copyright things is
so that they can't copyright the laws and regulations, preventing you
from finding out about what's legal and what isn't (or making you pay
exhorbitantly for the privilege). The same thing applies to the
software that is used to administer the laws and regulations, though.
Does anyone think the administration of the 1000-page Canada Free
Trade Bill won't be implemented in software? The tax code? The
budget? It's in the public interest that all this software remain
available to public scrutiny and understanding.
Another aspect is that FOIA requests can be denied on the grounds that
the information is of commercial value, or that the information is sold
in some other way by the government. (Someone asked for the entire
National Library of Medicine database by FOIA, which was rejected
because they sell it -- I can dig out a citation if you're interested.
Similarly, you can't get a commercial program that the government
bought from somebody, e.g. SunOS, using FOIA.) This bill will restrict
peoples' access to government software under FOIA, limiting their
ability to determine what government software is doing, and their
ability to use such software in their own efforts.
You can call your Congresscritter's local office and they will send
you a copy of the bill on request. It is the "Technology Transfer Act
of 1991", introduced by Rep. Constance Morella, R-MD. The story was
in EE Times, 28Jan91, pg 34, "Fed-code authors might profit". The
story itself is smarmy; an example: "Those unsung federal employees
who toil in silence to construct the government's software code soon
may be able to profit more readily under the terms of a bill recently
introduced in Congress."
Congresswoman Morella's office will also send out copies of the bill;
she's at +1 202 225 5341.
--
John Gilmore {sun,pacbell,uunet,pyramid}!hoptoad!gnu gnu@toad.com
Just say no to thugs. The ones who lock up innocent drug users come to mind.