[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 5 (Friday, January 7, 1994)]
[Notices]
[Pages 1004-1005]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-361]
[[Page Unknown]]
[Federal Register: January 7, 1994]
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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