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To: Multiple Recipients of TAP-INFO Mailing List
Subject: TAP/Crown Jewels - SEC EDGAR FILINGS - Internet

Crown Jewels Campaign
Taxpayer Assets Project/
  Essential Information
May 24, 1993

      REPRESENTATIVE MARKEY ASKS SEC TO INVESTIGATE FREE
      ACCESS TO SEC EDGAR FILINGS VIA THE INTERNET

In a stunning development, at a thursday May 20 Hearing to
consider the SEC reauthorization by the House Subcommittee on
Telecommunications and Finance, Representative Edward Markey (D-
MA), asked the SEC to determine if it was feasible to provide
free public access to individual SEC filings received by the new
EDGAR system via the Internet.  The SEC is expected to report
back to Markey in two weeks.

Markey's request follows more than two years of criticism of the
public access of the SEC's EDGAR system, which receives and
disseminates corporate disclosure documents in electronic
formats.  Mead Data Central, which owns the LEXIS/NEXIS services,
has the SEC contracts to manage the database and disseminate the
records to the public.  Until this year, Mead was only required
to provide a high priced "wholesale" dump of daily filings,
designed to serve data vendors, but not individuals, without
access to historical records.

By 1996 the EDGAR system will be receiving the full text of SEC
filings from about 16,000 corporations, generating about 11
million pages of data per year.  It will probably be the most
valuable financial and corporate database in the world.  The cost
of the EDGAR system, which has been under development since 1983,
is about $100 million ($30 million for a pilot project and $70
million for the operational system).

     DATA USERS FORCE CHANGES IN THE PUBLIC ACCESS PROVISIONS OF
     THE MEAD SUBCONTRACT

In the face of repeated criticism of the public access provisions
of the Mead contract from the Taxpayer Assets Project and several
other business, library, journalist, academic and citizen groups,
the SEC announced early this year that it would provide a CD-ROM
product with SEC filings to 1,400 federal Depository Libraries,
but it has refused to allow the general public to purchase the
CD-ROM product.  We are confident that the SEC will be forced to
make this product available to the public, perhaps early next
year.

A few weeks ago, the SEC relented on a second criticism of the
Mead subcontract, and instructed Mead to public access to all
historical data received by EDGAR, through monthly "merge" files,
making it less expensive to receive and process the bulk filings,
and easier for new firms to enter the market for EDGAR filings.
But, the SEC staff insisted that it would not provide public
online access to the individual filings.

     THE PROPOSAL TO MAKE INDIVIDUAL FILINGS AVAILABLE VIA THE
     INTERNET

The Taxpayer Assets Project and other groups have continued to
push the SEC to provide public online access to individual
filings.  Mead Data Central, which receives $14 million from the
SEC to provide an online system of access for 650 SEC terminals,
has refused to provide public access to the service that it runs,
since it plans to sell access to the filings through its high
priced LEXIS services.

Because of Mead's unwillingness to provide public access to the
$14 million service that it provides the SEC, it became necessary
to consider a separate system online system, not run by Mead.

Since the EDGAR database will be large (more than 65 gigabytes),
it was considered difficult an expensive to develop a separate
online system with full text searching capability.

On May 15, 1993 ten networking firms

     [America Online, Performance Systems International (PSI),
     InterNex Information Services, Institute for Global
     Communications, Fantasia Systems, Minnesota Regional
     Network, Sterling Payot Company, Community Information
     Exchange (CIX), Knowledge Systems, and Sunnyside Computing]

wrote to Representative Ed Markey asking that the SEC provide
online access to individual EDGAR filings via the Internet.
These firms suggested a low cost file server model that would
allow the public to obtain indexes of filings by a particular
company, and to receive the full text of individual filings by
email or by Internet FTP.

On May 20 Markey asked the SEC to report on the feasibility and
the cost of such a service, which may be provided free.  The SEC
has about two weeks to report back to Markey with a proposal.


     WHAT YOU CAN DO

The SEC official who is working on the proposal is John Lane, the
SEC's Chief Information Officer.  The Markey contact is David
Moulton, on the subcommittee staff.  We have told Lane and
Moulton that it is important to make this service a widely
available as possible.  A key issue is whether or not the filings
will available through ftp *and* email, since many persons only
have email gateways to the internet.

If you support this proposal, which would vastly expand public
access to SEC information, please send a note by mail or fax to
Markey or John Lane.  It is particularly helpful to provide a
brief note regarding your own interest in having the filings
available via the Internet, and any information you have
regarding the technical issues of how it can be implemented.
(There is some concern that the proposal will be undermined by
unrealistically high estimates of the cost.)  They can be reached
as follows.

Representative Edward Markey; Chair, Subcommittee on
Telecommunications and Finance, House of Representatives;
Washington, DC  20510; v. 202/226-2424; f. 202/226-2447; attn.
David Moulton.

John Lane, Chief Information Officer; SEC; 450 Fifth Street, NW;
Washington, DC 20549; v. 202/272-3907; f. 202-504-2365


OTHER GROUPS INTERESTED IN THIS ISSUE:  The Information Trust
202/289-5794; American Library Association 202/547-4440; American
Association of Law Librarians 202/662-9160; Computer
Professionals for Social Responsibility 202/544-9240; Center for
Public Integrity 202/223-0299; Taxpayer Assets Project 202/387-
8030.


THE CROWN JEWELS CAMPAIGN

The Crown Jewels Campaign is a grass roots effort to open up
access to several of the federal government's most important
information systems.  Future editions will provide updates on
EDGAR, as well as information abut the Department of Justice
JURIS system,  the House of Representatives LEGIS system, the CIA
Foreign Broadcast Information System (FBIS), the Patent and
Trademark Automated Patent System (APS), and others.  Suggestions
for Crown Jewels targets are welcome.

The Crown Jewels Campaign is a joint effort between Essential
Information and Ralph Nader's Taxpayer Assets Project (TAP).

TAP information policy notes, including all Crown Jewels Campaign
memorandums, are disseminated through tap-info, a *low volume*
list (not a discussion group).  To subscribe, send a note to:

     tap-info-request@essential.org
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