Clearance Request for Rights in Data and Copyrights

DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE

GENERAL SERVICES ADMINISTRATION

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

[OMB Control No. 9000-0090]

Clearance Request for Rights in Data and Copyrights

AGENCIES: Department of Defense (DOD), General Services Administration

(GSA), and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

ACTION: Notice of request for an extension to an existing OMB clearance

(9000-0090).

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SUMMARY: Under the provisions of the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980

(44 U.S.C. 3051), the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) Secretariat

has submitted to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) a request to

review and approve an extension of a currently approved information

collection requirement concerning Rights in Data and Copyrights.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Beverly Fayson, Office of Federal Acquisition Policy, GSA (202) 501-

4755.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

A. Purpose

Rights in Data is a regulation which concerns the rights of the

Government, and organizations with which the Government contracts, to

information developed under such contracts. The delineation of such

rights is necessary in order to protect the contractor's rights to not

disclose proprietary data and to insure that data developed with public

funds is available to the public.

The information collection burdens and recordkeeping requirements

included in this regulation fall into the following four categories.

(a) A provision which is to be included in solicitations where the

proposer would identify any proprietary data he would use during

contract performance in order that the contracting officer might

ascertain if such proprietary data should be delivered.

(b) Contract provisions which, in unusual circumstances, would be

included in a contract and require a contractor to deliver proprietary

data to the Government for use in evaluation of work results, or is

software to be used in a Government computer. These situations would

arise only when the very nature of the contractor's work is comprised

of limited rights data or restricted computer software and if the

Government would need to see that data in order to determine the extent

of the work.

(c) A technical data certification for major systems, which

requires the contractor to certify that the data delivered under the

contract is complete, accurate and compliant with the requirements of

the contract. As this provision is for major systems only, and few

civilian agencies have such major systems, only about 30 contracts will

involve this certification.

(d) The Additional Data Requirements clause, which is to be

included in all contracts for experimental, developmental, research, or

demonstration work (other than basic or applied research to be

performed solely by a university or college where the contract amount

will be $500,000 or less). The clause requires that the contractor keep

all data first produced in the performance of the contract for a period

of three years from the final acceptance of all items delivered under

the contract. Much of this data will be in the form of the deliverables

provided to the Government under the contract (final report, drawings,

specifications, etc.). Some data, however, will be in the form of

computations, preliminary data, records of experiments, etc., and these

will be the data that will be required to be kept over and above the

deliverables. The purpose of such recordkeeping requirements is to

insure that the Government can fully evaluate the research in order to

ascertain future activities and to insure that the research was

completed and fully reported, as well as to give the public an

opportunity to assess the research results and secure any additional

information. All data covered by this clause is unlimited rights data

paid for by the Government.

Paragraph (d) of the Rights in Data--General clause outlines a

procedure whereby a contracting officer can challenge restrictive

markings on data delivered. Under civilian agency contracts, limited

rights data or restricted computer software is rarely, if ever,

delivered to the Government. Therefore, there will rarely be any

challenges. Thus, there is no burden on the public.

Under the procedures established for development of the FAR, agency

and public comments were solicited and each comment was addressed

before finalization of the text. The comments which were received were

for the most part from educational institutions, which stated that

requiring their investigators to keep records of unlimited rights data

for three years after acceptance of deliverables was unreasonable, in

that such investigators in reality do not segregate their research by

contract, but rather combine it with other data in order to continue

their research. In light of this, the proposed rule was changed to

state that the Additional Data Requirements clause would not be placed

in contracts for basic or applied research with educational

institutions where the value was $500,000 or less. The $500,000

threshold was adopted after surveying the major civilian research and

development (R&D) agencies, whose data suggested that an average R&D

contract was $250,000 to $300,000; commensurate with other clause

thresholds (e.g., small business subcontracting), the $500,000

threshold was chosen. Thus, for most R&D contracts with universities,

no recordkeeping is required.

B. Annual Reporting Burden

The annual reporting burden is estimated as follows: Respondents,

1,100; responses per respondent, 1; total annual responses, 1,100;

preparation hours per response, 2,7; and total response burden hours,

2,970.

C. Annual Recordkeeping Burden

The annual recordkeeping burden is estimated as follows:

Recordkeepers, 9,000; hours per recordkeeper, 3; and total

recordkeeping burden hours, 27,000

OBTAINING COPIES OF PROPOSALS: Requester may obtain copies of OMB

applications or justifications from the General Services

Administration, FAR Secretariat (VRS), room 4037, Washington, DC 20405,

telephone (202) 501-4755. Please cite OMB Control No. 9000-0090, Right

in Data and Copyrights, in all correspondence.

Dated: December 28, 1993.

Beverly Fayson,

FAR Secretariat.

[FR Doc. 94-361 Filed 1-6-94; 8:45 am]

BILLING CODE 6820-34-M