Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Busby permission

[SeaLordOne@aol.com]

Teammates,

I believe that it is time to take the Busby implementation project off line.  
I ask those with websites, like Jon, or interest in providing Busby, to 
contact me directly.

It does cause me considerable discomfort that such heavy hitters as Phil and 
Pat see these efforts as some sort of legal or ethical violation.  I have a 
lot of respect for these folks.  But on the other hand, I have been writing 
documents for the US government for 25 years.  I have authored close to 100 
public domain documents, for which I have no copyright protection.  I am a 
federal regulator by profession.  I have a Ph.D. in my field.  I belong to 
three professional organizations that specifically address copyright and 
public domain issues in their ethical standards.  I have signed, many dozens 
of times, the same forms Mr. Busby must have signed for the Navy.  And based 
on this 25  years of experience, I see no need to hesitate.  I have to go 
with my own experience on this one.

That being said, I will proceed with utmost caution.  I will raise these 
various issues with the Navy, and share the concerns of the group.  As I 
described in a previous post, other private organizations have been printing 
Busby over the years, and the Navy has encouraged these efforts.  They are 
dissapointed that the group in Maryland is no longer printing Busby, and are 
excited by the prospect that we may be able to help them keep the document 
alive.  I certainly wish Phil could talk the Busby heirs into taking on this 
project...I would rather not be doing this myself.  But someone has to step 
up to the plate before Busby fades into the sunset.

The problem with public domain documents is that no one owns them, so often 
no one has a vested interest in keeping them alive.  The Navy does not own 
the document any more that the heirs, so the Navy has limited ability to 
maintain it.  Pat mentioned the rights of the publisher.  An important 
distinction (to the lawyers at least), is that public domain documents are 
not published, they are printed.  The Navy did not publish Busby...the 
Government Printing Office printed it.  The Navy has physical possession of 
the the original draft, but they do not have "rights" to it.  It is not a 
copyrightable document.

I have probably said too much already.  Please appreciate that I am not 
attempting to profit from the works of others.  My only goal is to keep Busby 
alive.  And the only reason I am doing this is because no one else on the 
face of the earth seems to be doing it.  If someone else will step up to the 
plate on this, I will gracefully withdrawl my efforts.  But until they do, I 
will keep on truckin'!

Doug Farrow