[PSUBS-MAILIST] The Navy Speaks: Bubsy is Public Domain

[SeaLordOne@aol.com]

Shipmates,

I have contacted several staff members in the Office of the Oceanographer of 
the Navy, and they have all assured me that Busby's 1976 Manned Submersibles 
is Public Domain.  What this means is that anyone, anywere can make unlimited 
copies, post the document on the internet, or even make copies to sell at a 
profit, (which has in fact been done with the blessing of the Navy).  Public 
domain means this document belongs to the public, not to Busby, and not even 
to the Oceanographer of the Navy.

When I asked Gail S. Cleere of Public Affairs if she would mind if we posted 
the entire document on the psubs website, she indicated that she would be 
"grateful" if we would provide that service.  She would love to be able to 
keep the document in print, but simply lacks the funds.  

Private sector folks often focus on the "nabster" or "pirate" side of 
copyright, where vandals steal the knowledge of others without due 
compensation.  But those of us in the public sector are very sensitive to the 
other side of the coin.  Public Domain documents that should be available to 
the taxpayers who funded their development, but which are unavailable because 
the government libraries are underfunded.  The Oceanographer of the Navy gets 
only 5-6 requests for Busby each year, which is simply not enough to justify 
keeping the book in print.  They wish they could keep every book in print.

I received an e-mail from the webmaster of the Office of the Oceanographer of 
the Navy just tonight, asking if he could have permission to put the psubs 
link on his website, on the FAQ page.  In other words, when any person 
worldwide goes to the Office of the Oceanographer of the Navy and wants a 
copy of Busby, they will be linked to PSUBS by the U.S. Navy.  

Now I personally think that is way cool, but this is not my website...Ray 
owns this website.  So you (Ray) need to let me know whether you want to be 
the Navy's official Busby site or not.  I am sure someone else will host it 
if you are not interested.  You will be under no obligation to the Navy, but 
will certainly get a lot of attention.  You need to decide whether you want a 
lot of attention.

I have access to a pretty good scanner at work, so I will spend the next 
month running all 764 pages of Busby through the scanner.  By then I am sure 
we will have someone who will be willing to host this for the 
Navy...hopefully Ray.  Once this thing is on the web, everyone in the psubs 
community will have equal access to (IMHO) the only comprehensive PSUB 
document ever written.

Just for the record, my primary contact was:

MS. Gail S. Cleere, Public Affairs
Oceanographer of the Navy
3450 Massachusettes Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20392
(202) 762-1045, Fax 762-0480
Cleere.Gail@HQ.NAVY.MIL

Her last day is today.  She is replaced by Senior Chief Robert Freeman on 
Tuesday.  I am in contact with him as well.  I have included this information 
for the archives, not so the Navy will be flooded with questions from 
individual PSUBBERS.  I ask that you please continue to allow me to be the 
sole point of contact between PSUBS and the Navy on this issue, at least for 
now.  I believe it will avoid confusion.  Once the Busby book is linked and 
on-line, I will bow out and you can have at the Navy all you want.  Deal?

Ray, please let me know if you want to be on the Navy website.  I will 
contact you on technical issues as they arise.

Thanks,

Doug Farrow