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E. Papers and proceedings of United Nations conferences and seminars
13. The proceedings and papers of United Nations conferences, seminars and similar meetings represent a special case and, as circumstances vary, copyright practice should make allowance for such variations. It is customary for the United Nations to publish the proceedings and papers of such meetings, or excerpts therefrom. The senior staff member responsible for planning such a meeting should discuss the copyright question with the Office for Legal Affairs at a very early stage and should include in the preliminary arrangements, such as agreements and correspondence with the participants, and in the understandings with the co-operating Governments, appropriate references to literary rights and the intention of the United Nations to publish the papers and proceedings. The following considerations should be kept in mind in considering whether or not to secure copyright protection:
(a) As a general rule, documents bearing a United Nations symbol or working papers which have been distributed before copyright protection is sought may be regarded as being in the public domain. When it is anticipated that the proceedings will include papers issued first as documents or working papers, the decision to copyright should be made before individual papers are reproduced for distribution, even to participants, in order that the necessary copyright notice may be given on each individual paper;
(b) The sale of the proceedings of major United Nations conferences is a revenue-producing activity to which the Advisory Committee on Administrative and Budgetary Questions attaches considerable importance. There is no evidence to indicate that failure to copyright such proceedings has in the past led to a loss in revenue because of unauthorized use of material by commercial publishers. Such loss could, however, occur in cases where a relatively small number of papers contain the bulk of the most valuble material and where their unauthorized use by a commercial publisher could therefore have a detrimental effect on the sale of the official proceedings.
F. Other special cases
14. The authors of articles contributed to United Nations publications or of papers submitted to seminars or other meetings which are to be published by the United Nations sometimes seek permission to publish their articles or papers under their own name in a book or a professional journal. Where such publication is to take place after the United Nations publications have appeared, the general practice applies (see paras. 8 to 12 above). In some cases, however, permission is sought to reproduce articles or papers prepared for the United Nations prior to their publication by the United Nations itself. In replying to such requests members of the Secretariat should be guided by the following principles:
(a) The United Nations cannot withhold permission to publish material which has been prepared for it as a technical contribution and for which it has made no payment, unless the contribution was accepted on the understanding that it was to become the property of the United Nations. The author should, however, be informed of the intention of the United Nations to publish and should be asked to state that the material was prepared for the United Nations and is to be published by it in a publication or volume of proceedings.
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