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Mr. KAMINSTEIN. That would be true for the positions requested at this time.

NEW POSITIONS REQUESTED

Mr. ANDREWS. On page 95 you show an increase of $141,405 for new positions-25 total. Will you discuss that?

Dr. MUMFORD. As I indicated in my preliminary statement, Mr. Chairman, the volume of work in the Copyright Office—that is, registrations, assignments, transfers, and so on-have steadily increased every year. The additional staff has not kept pace with this increase. We have reached the point where the work cannot be done promptly. There are complaints about tardy registrations and people are held up in litigation because they have not received their registration certifications.

Mr. Kaminstein can elaborate on that.

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. Mr. Chairman, if you will turn to page 108

COPYRIGHT WORKLOAD

Mr. ANDREWS. I would like to insert page 108 in the record at this point, which shows the overall workload of the Copyright Office. (The page follows:)

The over-all workload of the Copyright Office is based primarily on the number of copyright claims filed and registrations made.

The steady growth in registrations is reflected in the following table:

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Mr. ANDREWS. Will you discuss that chart on page 108?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. You will find for 1961, 1962, and 1963 that no new positions were asked for or received, and during that time there has been a gradual buildup in registrations. Thus, while there has been a 25-percent increase in registrations in those 5 years, the comparative increase in positions is only 8 percent.

Mr. ANDREWS. You estimate in 1967 you will have 323,711 registrations?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. Yes, sir

Mr. ANDREWS. That is an increase, roughly, of 16,000 over 1966? Mr. KAMINSTEIN. That is right, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. Is the projected registration figure for fiscal 1966 of 307,582 bearing up, based on experience to date?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. There has been one unpredictable factor. At the request of this committee the Copyright Office prepared a bill to increase the fees. This bill was adopted by the House Judiciary Committee, passed by the Congress, and signed by the President in November 1965. We told the Judiciary Committee that our experience

indicated there would probably be a drop of between 10 and 15 percent immediate after the increase. For the 4 months of December, January, February, and March after the increase went into effect, we find we do have, not a 10- or 15-percent drop, but a drop of only 4 percent for those 4 months. For the entire fiscal year to date we stand at zero increase in registrations over the prior year, but with an increase in fees of 19 percent.

RECENT INCREASE IN FEES

Mr. ANDREWS. How much did that new legislation increase your income? How much were fees increased?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. For initial registration the fee was increased from $4 to $6; and in the case of renewals, from $2 to $4. This was the main increase. What seems like a sizable increase at page 103, an increase in the cost of catalogs from $25 to $75, is a ceiling price for the entire series of yearly catalogs. We have now indicated that we would raise the price of the yearly catalog from $25 to $50, but this will not take effect for some parts of the catalog for another year or two.

The other important increase is in the search fee, from $3 to $5 an hour.

Mr. ANDREWS. We will put pages 102 and 103 in the record at this point. (The pages follow :)

The President signed the measure on October 27, 1965 (Public Law 89-297). The increases took effect on November 26, 1965, and are as follows:

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1 Registration fee for commercial prints and labels remains unchanged at $6. 2 Remains unchanged.

Remains unchanged.

Although the new fee structure will have been in effect in fiscal 1966 for only seven months, we expect to ratio of cash fees to obligations to rise to 71% for that fiscal year, and to increase to 76% for fiscal 1967.

INCOME FROM COPYRIGHT FEES

Mr. ANDREWS. What do you anticipate the income from the copyright fees will be in 1967?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. We estimate it will be $1,717,018 in cash as shown at the top of page 99.

Mr. ANDREWS. That is the figure you gave me this morning? Mr. KAMINSTEIN. Yes, sir; based on the projected registration figures.

Mr. ANDREWs. How much will that be above the 1966 income?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. In dollars it is about a quarter of a million dollars, but it would increase the ratio of fees to the total cost of running the office to 76 percent. This committee has been disturbed for several years about the decrease in the ratio. In the present year we would expect the ratio of fees applied to obligations to go up to 71 percent. That is at the bottom of page 99. And then we would expect it to go up to 76 percent for 1967.

Mr. ANDREWS. You reflect quite an increase in the ratio of fees applied to obligations, from 63 percent in 1965 to 76 percent in 1967. Is that realistic, in your opinion?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. Yes, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. Is there basis for speculating that the percentage will probably go higher in future years and, if so, how high would you be willing to say?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. I would be reluctant to predict that because it would depend on the cost of running the office. If there were increases in salary it would reduce the percentage ratio. For fiscal 1967, the ratio of income to obligations will be 133 percent if you include the cost of the materials turned over by the Library.

Mr. ANDREWS. They have monetary value?

MATERIALS SECURED THROUGH COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. The Library would have to purchase the materials it secures from the registration system if they did not come in through copyright deposit.

Mr. ANDREWS. Do you ever sell those?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. No, sir. We receive about a half million copies a year. The Library selects the kind of material it would go out on the market and purchase. We have a list of how much in each cateis actually selected on page 97.

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Dr. MUMFORD. Those materials not added to the Library's collection are used for exchange purposes.

Mr. ANDREWS. Exchange for what?

Dr. MUMFORD. Exchange with other libraries for materials we do not have.

JUSTIFICATION FOR ADDITIONAL POSITIONS

Mr. ANDREWS. We gave you 13 more positions last year for workload increases, which meant between 1961 and 1966 you handled a 25percent increase in registrations with only an 8-percent increase in employees. Now, in asking for 25 more people, you indicate that between 1961 and 1966 there would be a 31-percent increase in registrations, which is not a great deal higher than the 25-percent figure, yet you now project a 19-percent increase in employees over the same period. That prompts this question: How can you justify adding 25 more people now? It means either last year you didn't ask for enough or this year you are asking for too many.

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. I think you are putting your finger on it. The committee had expressed reluctance to give us more people until fees were raised.

Dr. MUMFORD. I think the Register would indicate that our past experience has shown while there may be a temporary falloff in registrations they soon come up again.

TIME REQUIRED TO PROCESS A REGISTRATION

Mr. ANDREWS. How long does it take on an average to get a registration processed?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. From 6 to 8 weeks. At one point we reduced it to 2 weeks.

Mr. ANDREWS. When was that point?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. I would say 5 or 6 years ago.

Mr. ANDREWS. You say 5 years ago it took 2 weeks to get a registration processed?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. About that.

Mr. ANDREWS. Let us look at the chart on page 108. In 1963, you had 264,845 registrations and you had 247 positions. In 1961, 1962, and 1963 when you had 247 positions in each of those years, is it safe to say a registration could be processed in 2 weeks?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. No. I think the processing period began to climb in 1961 or before. During that time, for at least the last 5 years, not only have registrations risen but we have had to use staff on the revision of the copyright law.

REVISION OF COPYRIGHT LAWS

Mr. ANDREWS. What work did you do in connection with the revision of the copyright laws?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. During the past 5 years we have held numerous meetings with attorneys and representatives of various interests, and have prepared extensive drafts and reports in preparation for submitting a bill to the Congress. In 1964 we drafted a bill and Chairman Celler and Mr. McClellan for the Senate introduced it. A substantially revised bill was introduced in January 1965. In 1965 the House held 23 days of hearings from May to August. The House committee, beginning in January 1966, has held 23 executive sessions on this bill, the latest one this morning, and they intend to go on until they cover it all.

Mr. ANDREWS. How many employees are working on pending copyright legislation?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. Mostly the top staff, but we do require attorneys and staff members to write supplementary memorandum in order to support what we are preparing for the Congress.

TIME REQUIRED TO PROCESS A REGISTRATION

Mr. ANDREWS. You stated a few moments ago that about 5 years ago registrations could be processed in 2 weeks and now it takes 6 to 8 weeks?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. That is right.

Mr. ANDREWS. How long did it take in 1965 and 1966?
Mr. KAMINSTEIN. It has come up to 6 to 8 weeks.
Mr. ANDREWS. Up to?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. That is right. I think one of the things I have not emphasized is that the registration process is becoming more complex.

Mr. ANDREWS. You mean it takes longer to process a registration? Mr. KAMINSTEIN. The more difficult ones, yes. It is a question of new materials, tougher legal problems, and more complex materials being submitted.

Mr. ANDREWS. If the committee were to grant this request for 25 additional positions, would that in any way reduce the time necessary to process a registration?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. Yes, sir.

Mr. ANDREWS. To what?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. We would hope to reduce it eventually to the old figure.

Mr. ANDREWs. Of what? Two weeks?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. We would hope to get down to 3 or 4 weeks at first, but eventually get it back to 2 weeks.

Mr. ANDREWS. Could you do that with the addition of 25 men?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. I think we could. We receive about 1,100 applications every day and our effort has been to process them as fast as possible.

Mr. ANDREWS. How long would it take to reduce the time from 6 to 8 weeks to 2 weeks?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. We would hope we could do it with the staff we have requested.

Mr. ANDREWS. And have it done by the next fiscal year?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. I hope sometime during that fiscal year.

Mr. ANDREWS. What would happen if you came back next year, after we had granted you these 25 men, and you told us it would still take from 6 to 8 weeks?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. I think it is difficult for us to predict what would happen, but we would try very hard to do this because the longer it takes the more time we have to spend in answering inquiries as to what has happened to the application. The closer we can get to a short period, the fewer inquiries we receive.

Mr. ANDREWS. You are telling us if you get these 25 additional people, by this time next year you could have the processing time reduced from 6 to 8 weeks to 2 weeks?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. Two to three; I would hope to do that.
Mr. ANDREWS. Two to three weeks?

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. I would hope to do that. We cannot promise, but 2 weeks is as short a processing period as we could hope to achieve. Mr. ANDREWS. The reason for asking for the additional employees over there is to get your registration processing time down from 6 to 8 weeks, where it has been for the last 5 years, down to 2 weeksor, as you added, 2 to 3 weeks.

Mr. KAMINSTEIN. I would try to reach the goal of 2 weeks. I believe we have a remarkably efficient staff, members of which have been working under severe difficulties. We are even running into difficulty in moving materials around our office because of the number of applications received every day together with two copies of books and other materials.

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