Software Copyright Impact Survey

OMB Control No. 0693-0033
Expiration Date: 07/31/2022
Software Copyright Impact Survey
Introduction
NIST’s Return on Investment (ROI) Initiative supports the President’s Management Agenda goal of
modernizing federal government practices to further fuel the nation’s engines of innovation by
maximizing the transfer of Federal investments in science and technology to the private sector.
The ROI Initiative is the culmination of a broad-ranging and inclusive review of policies and practices
that constrain technology commercialization. One of these constraints is the regulatory prohibition of
copyright protection on software developed by federal agency employees (Title 17, Section 105, of the
United States Code).
This survey is part of a NIST-sponsored study to assess the future economic benefits of eliminating
the prohibition of copyright protection for software developed in government-operated federal
laboratories. Contractor-operator federal laboratories are included because of their extensive
experience with copyrighted software.
The survey covers two time periods, 2015-2019 and 2020-2024. Based on your informed judgement,
we want to obtain, for the laboratory or facility (or laboratories or facilities) that you are responding
for, estimates of the approximate number of software products (and associated revenue) that have
been subject to copyright protection in federal laboratories (either because the lab is contractoroperated or because of exceptions that apply to government-operated labs), and the number of
software products without copyright protection that could be available for copyright protection if the
prohibition was eliminated. We will use the information you provide to estimate the net economic
benefits of such a policy action. Please answer all questions to the best of your ability. The
information provided will be used to estimate costs and revenues as functions of numbers and types
of software products. Individual responses will not be attributed to you, the survey respondent, or the
specific laboratory or facility with which you are associated. Issues concerning specific survey
questions should be directed to David Leech .
Disclaimer: By design, the data entry fields in this survey form are not intended for the insertion of
sensitive personally identifiable information (SPII)—nor are they intended for any proprietary business
identifiable information (BII). Please take Federal best practice precautions in not inserting any data
that is not explicitly requested.
——————————————
Note: This collection of information contains Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) requirements approved by the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB). Notwithstanding any other provisions of the law, no person is required to respond to,
nor shall any person be subject to a penalty for failure to comply with, a collection of information subject to the
requirements of the PRA unless that collection of information displays a currently valid OMB control number. Public

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reporting burden for this collection is estimated to be thirty (30) minutes per response, including the time for reviewing
instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed and completing and
reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any aspect of this collection
of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to the National Institute of Standards and Technology,
Attn: Nicole Gingrich ; Phone: 301-975-8034.

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OMB Control No. 0693-0033
Expiration Date: 07/31/2022
Software Copyright Impact Survey
Section 1
Laboratory Identification, Agency Affiliation, and Operator Type
1. Identify the laboratory/laboratories (or laboratory facility/facilities) for which you are responding.

2. Name the parent federal agency of which your laboratory/laboratories (or laboratory
facility/facilities) is/are a part.

3. Is/Are the laboratory/laboratories (or laboratory facility/facilities) you are responding for considered
government-operated or contractor-operated? (Choose one, or if you are responding for multiple
laboratories or facilities and they are not all considered to be in the same operation category, please
list each in the "other" box and identify each as GOGO or GOCO.)
Government Owned Government Operated (GOGO)
Government Owned Contractor Operated (GOCO)
Other (please specify) and identify as either GOGO or GOCO.

If answering for multiple labs or facilities, from this point on just respond to each question for the collection of those labs or
facilities.

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OMB Control No. 0693-0033
Expiration Date: 07/31/2022
Software Copyright Impact Survey
Section 2
Software Licensing & Public Domain Software Release Activity 2015-2019
(in the laboratory/laboratories or laboratory facility/facilities for which you are responding)
For fiscal years, FY15-FY19:
4. For the FY15-FY19 period as a whole, approximate the percentage of the two custom-developed
software* product categories that your laboratory/laboratories (or laboratory facility/facilities)
contributed to your parent Federal agency’s ({{ Q2 }}) total output in those categories:
*Custom-developed computer software refers to software developed by agency employees as part of their official duties and software written as part of a federal
contract or otherwise fully funded by the federal government. It includes computer software projects, modules, plugins, scripts, middleware, and application
programing interfaces (APIs).

Percent of parent federal agency
Software exclusive of
open source
Open source software

5. How many custom-developed software products made by your laboratory/laboratories or
facility/facilities were made available for licensing? (For GOGO labs it is understood that copyrighted
software products transferred to federal agencies or protected outside the U.S. are available to be
licensed.)
Number available for licensing (numerical only please):
FY15
FY16
FY17
FY18
FY19

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6. Estimate the approximate percentage distribution of the kinds of intellectual property protection
applied to software products available for licensing:
Percent
Copyright only
Copyleft only
Patented only
Copyrighted and patented

7. Estimate how many custom-developed computer software products were licensed and the average
number of times each product was licensed in each fiscal year:
Number of products licensed

Number of times (on average for
those products) each product was
licensed

Number of “seats per license” (on
average for those licenses, if this
metric applies)

FY15
FY16
FY17
FY18
FY19

8. Estimate the annual total dollar amount of revenues generated by software licenses:*
* Total revenues should include at least license issue royalties, minimum annual royalties, earned royalties, sub-licensing royalties, and benchmark royalties but not
unreimbursed expense royalties. The latter will be included as part of licensing costs.

Annual revenue (nominal dollars):
FY15 ($)
FY16 ($)
FY17 ($)
FY18 ($)
FY19 ($)

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9. How many custom-developed computer software products were available for download to the
public without a license*?
*Such public release software includes software released to the general public or other federal agencies without copyright or copyleft restrictions, and software
released to the general public or other federal agencies for non-commercial use (exclusive of open source).

FY15
FY16
FY17
FY18
FY19

10. To the best of your knowledge, for FY15-FY19 as a whole, estimate the percentage distribution of
the software products available from your laboratory/laboratories (or laboratory facility/facilities)
across the following categories:
Percent
Percent released as open
source
Percent released to the
general public or other
agencies for noncommercial use
(exclusive of open
source)
Percent released to
general public without
copyright or copyleft
restrictions
Percent released under
other conditions

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OMB Control No. 0693-0033
Expiration Date: 07/31/2022
Software Copyright Impact Survey
Section 3
Software Development and Management Costs, 2015-2019

(in the laboratory/laboratories or laboratory facility/facilities
for which you are responding)

Costs over the entire period, 2015-2019:
Software Development Costs
11. Estimate the average, maximum, and minimum number of lines of source code for the typical
individual custom-developed software product developed by your laboratory/laboratories (or
laboratory facility/facilities):
Average
Maximum
Minimum

12. For the average size software product (in terms of lines of source code), estimate the average
number of full-time equivalent (FTE) person-years required for its development (and a representative
GS-rating):
Average number of
FTE person-years
Representative General
Schedule (GS)-rating

Software Management Costs
For software made available for download to the public with or
without a license:

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13. Over and above the cost of developing software that is released to the general public with or
without a license, is there a significant annual cost to maintaining this software in terms of writing
additional software or managing and administering the inventory once released? If so, please provide
estimates of the average annual number of full-time equivalent (FTE) person-years required and a
representative GS-rating:
Average annual
FTE person-years writing
supporting software
Representative General
Schedule (GS)-rating
Average annual
FTE person-years
administering software
inventory
Representative General
Schedule (GS)-rating

With reference to licensed software
14. Internal to the laboratory/laboratories or facility/facilities for which you are responding, what is the
average annual number of full-time equivalent (FTE) person-years (and representative GS-rating)
dedicated to obtaining and maintaining intellectual property protection, and managing the licensing
transactions for your software portfolio?
Average annual number
of FTE person-years
Representative General
Schedule (GS)-rating

15. For the laboratory/laboratories or facility/facilities for which you are responding, estimate the
average annual annuity fees (paid to maintain all issued patents) required to maintain your software
portfolio:
Average annual cost of
annuity fees ($)

16. External to the laboratory/laboratories or facility/facilities for which you are responding, what is
the average annual cost of the legal support required for obtaining and maintaining intellectual
property protection, and managing the licensing transactions, for your laboratory’s software portfolio
(including, if known, unreimbursed expense royalties)?*
* External legal costs include all annual expenses paid to private sector law firms in support of the agency’s portfolio of software patents and copyrights.

Average annual cost of
external legal support ($)

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OMB Control No. 0693-0033
Expiration Date: 07/31/2022
Software Copyright Impact Survey
Section 4
Counterfactual Software Copyright License & Public Release Activity 2020-2024
(in the laboratory/laboratories or laboratory facility/facilities for which you are responding)
Assuming Elimination of the Copyright Prohibition for Government Works
We would be grateful for your experience-based forecast of the 2020-2024 period assuming the
copyright prohibition for government-produced software is eliminated.
17. Assuming the elimination of the copyright prohibition for government works, estimate the average
annual number of custom-developed software products that will be available for licensing:
5-year annual average for
number of products
available for licensing

18. Assuming the elimination of the copyright prohibition for government works, estimate the average
annual number (and frequency) of custom-developed software products that will be licensed:
5-year annual average for
the number of software
products
5-year annual average for
number of times each
product is expected to be
licensed
5-year annual average of
the number of “seats per
license” (if this metric
applies)

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19. If the copyright prohibition for government works was eliminated, estimate the distribution of
custom-developed software products across the following software release categories: (Note that with
the prohibition eliminated, software inventions could be covered by both copyrights and patents.)
Percent
Percent patented but not
copyrighted
Percent copyrighted but
not patented
Percent patented &
copyrighted
Percent copyrighted as
open source
Percent released to the
general public or other
agencies for noncommercial use
(exclusive of open
source)
Percent released to
general public without
copyright or copyleft
restrictions
Percent classified or
export controlled

Compared to the 2015-2019 period:
20. Do you anticipate the average number of source lines of code for individual custom-developed
software products available for licensing will grow, decline, or stay roughly the same? (Please choose
one response and enter the %.)
Average annual growth (%)
Average annual decline
(%)
Remain the same (enter
the number 0)

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21. Do you expect the average annual dollar amount of revenues generated per licensed software
product (i.e., after removing the effects of inflation and thus using dollars of constant value) to grow,
decline, or remain roughly the same? (Please choose one of the first three responses and enter the %.
Then provide your rationale in the fourth response area.)
Inflation-adjusted average
annual growth (%)
Inflation-adjusted average
annual decline (%)
Remain the same (enter
the number 0)
Please provide a general
rationale for your estimate.

Please click "Done" when you are ready to submit your responses.
You Have Completed the Survey.
Thank You!

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