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

[Ray Keefer <Ray.Keefer@west.sun.com>]

Hi,

Another thought. What if we asked them to print 100 copies? Would that
make it worth the Office of the Oceanographer of the Navy to reprint?
Those who want their own copies will pay up front. The extras will end up
in my garage for later auctions on ebay. :)

Regards,
Ray

> From: SeaLordOne@aol.com
> Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2000 22:34:34 EDT
> Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] The Navy Speaks: Bubsy is Public Domain
> To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> 
> 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