Joint Explanatory Statement of the Committee of Conference
The managers on the part of the Senate and the House at the conference on the disagreeing votes of the two Houses on the amendment of the House to the bill (S.22) for the general revision of the Copyright Law, title 17 of the United States Code, and for other purposes, submit the following joint statement to the House and Senate in explanation of the effect of the action agreed upon by the managers, and recommend in the accompanying conference report:
The House amendment struck out all of the Senate bill after the enacting clause and inserted a substitute text.
The Senate recedes from its disagreement to the amendment of the House with an amendment which is a substitute for the Senate bill and the House amendment. The differences between the Senate bill, the House amendment, and the substitute agreed to in conference are noted below, except for clerical corrections, conforming changes made necessary by agreements reached by the conferees, and minor drafting and clarifying changes.
Copyrightable Subject Matter: Publications of the U.S. Government
Senate bill
Under section 105 of the Senate bill, both published and unpublished works of the United States Government were excluded from copyright protection.
House bill
The House bill retained the general prohibition against copyright in U.S. Government works, but made one specific exception in favor of any publication of the National Technical Information Service. The Secretary of Commerce was authorized to secure copyright in such works, on behalf of the United States as author or copyright owner, for a limited term not to exceed five years.
Conference substitute
The conference substitute conforms to the Senate bill. Because of the lack of Senate hearings on the issue, the conferees recommended that the NTIS request for limited copyright in order to control foreign copying be considered at hearings early in the next session. In the interim, consideration should also bc given to compensatory appropriations to NTIS in lieu of revenues lost as a result of unauthorized foreign copying.
The Department of Commerce testified on May 8, 1975, before the House Subcommittee on Courts, Civil Liberties, and the Administration of Justice that the lack of copyright protection in publications of its National Technical Information Service (NTIS) posed special problems, since NTIS is required (15 USC 1151-7) to be self-
