Newsgroups: alt.etext From: dell@wiretap.spies.com (Thomas Dell) Subject: [GOVDOC-L] TAP Crown Jewels - SEC EDGAR Filings Message-ID: Organization: The Internet Wiretap Date: Wed, 26 May 1993 08:15:00 GMT Newsgroups: bit.listserv.govdoc-l Date: Mon, 24 May 1993 21:44:00 CST Sender: Discussion of Government Document Issues From: Mark Thomas Subject: SEC EDGAR filings on Internet Message-ID: Lines: 164 Date: Mon, 24 May 93 15:50:09 EDT From: LOVE@TEMPLEVM Subject: TAP-CROWN JEWELS - SEC EDGAR FILINGS ON INTERNET To: Discussion of Government Document Issues 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 ------------------------------------------------------------------ Taxpayer Assets Project, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036; v. 202/387-8030; f. 202/234-5176; internet: tap@essential.org ------------------------------------------------------------------ tap-info postings are archived at cspr.org. ftp: ftp.cpsr.org; gopher: gopher.cpsr.org; wais: wais.cspr.org