PURPOSE

This NASA Procedural Requirements (NPR) establishes procedures and responsibilities for the reporting, review, assessment, and release of software created by or for NASA. These procedures ensure that NASA software is reported and released according to law and NASA policies, with appropriate restrictions on the use and redistribution of the software. The unrestricted release of NASA software, as defined in Appendix A at paragraph A.2.7, is prohibited.

APPLICABILITY

a. This NPR is applicable to NASA Headquarters and Centers, including Component Facilities, and to JPL to the extent specified in its contract.

b. This NPR is applicable to the reporting, review, assessment, and release of all software:

(1) Created exclusively by, or jointly with, NASA employees as part of the NASA employee's official duties;

(2) Created by a non-Federal party where intellectual property rights to the software have been assigned to the U. S. Government, or have been licensed to the Government where the license authorizes the Government to further release the software; or,

(3) In the lawful possession of NASA, except as otherwise stated in subparagraphs d through g.

c. This NPR applies to software that (1) is or has been used in a NASA program, (2) was produced by or for NASA, or (3) may have significant commercial value or utility to potential private or public sector users or applications outside of NASA.

d. This NPR does not apply to software that has been classified pursuant to Executive Order 12958 by an Original Classification Authority and is designated and marked as Top Secret, Secret, or Confidential.

e. This NPR does not apply to software released without restriction as to use or disclosure prior to October 17, 1997 (the original issue date of NPD 2210.1) unless such software has been modified to add new functionality since it was released.

f. This NPR does not apply to bug fixes. Bug fixes alone may be released without complying with the requirements of this NPR. Previously released software that has been modified only by incorporating bug fixes may be released to the same recipient(s) without requiring additional reporting, reviews or agreements under this NPR. For applicability of this NPR to minor code enhancement of pre-existing software, see paragraph 1.7.3.1.

g. This NPR does not apply to computer databases, as defined at paragraph A.1.2, Web pages with integrated databases, data input to or output from a computer program, as defined at A.1.1.3., (such as data models), or software documentation, as defined at A.1.14, unless such documentation discloses software source code.

(1) In accordance with applicable laws and regulations, Centers have discretionary authority to publicly release computer databases and software documentation depending on the Government's rights and obligations with regard to such data.

(2) Upon request and depending on the Government's intellectual property rights and any other legal restrictions on release (e.g., export control), NASA computer programs that are used to read and manipulate computer databases may be publicly released with the computer databases, but only if such computer programs are not commercially available. For the release of software documentation, see A.1.14. In addition, certain types of information are restricted from dissemination via NASA public Web sites in accordance with NPR 2810.1, Security of Information Technology, section 11.3.9, Internet Publishing Content Requirements.

h. In general, software, as defined in section A.1, is not considered a record under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and, therefore, is not subject to the mandatory release requirements of the FOIA. Requests for software under the FOIA shall be coordinated between the Center FOIA Office and the Center Software Release Authority.