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 UNITED NATIONS

To: Members of the staff

From: The Under-Secretary-General for Conference Services and Special Assignments

Subject: REGULATIONS FOR THE CONTROL AND LIMITATION OF DOCUMENTATION Addendum COPYRIGHT IN UNITED NATIONS PUBLICATIONS: GENERAL PRINCIPLES, PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE

1. The Organization's policy governing copyright in United Nations publications was announced in administrative instruction ST/AI/189/Add.9/Rev.1 of 21 March 1985. A revised copyright policy was announced by administrative instruction ST/AI/189/Add.9/Rev.2 of 17 September 1987 and was put into effect on an experimental basis from 1 October 1987 to 31 December 1989. To gain further experience and better gauge the the impact of the revised policy, the experimental period was extended until 31 December 1991. To this effect, administrative instruction ST/AI/189/Add.9/Rev.2/Add.1 was issued on 5 April 1990.

2. In late 1991, the Publications Board appointed a Working Group to study the impact of both the revised copyright policy as well as recent developments in copyright law and in electronic publications and dissemination technology on the Organization's publishing programme and activities. There is general consensus that the revised copyright policy has had a positive impact and yielded the desired result of enhancing the control the Organization retains over the use of its intellectual property to ensure that it is used in the best interests of the United Nations and to protect the revenues that might accrue from sales and external publications. However, it is apparent that greater efforts are required by author departments at all duty stations to adhere to and apply uniformly the copyright policy and procedures announced in ST/AI/189/Add.9/Rev.2. It is equally apparent that issues pertaining to the 92-08351 3247b (E) 270292