105 STAT. 1598 PUBLIC LAW 102-194—DEC. 9, 1991 15 USC 5512. SEC. 102. NATIONAL RESEARCH AND EDUCATION NETWORK. (a) ESTABLISHMENT. — As part of the Program, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, the Department of Commerce, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and other Eigencies participating in the Program shall support the establishment of the National Research and Education Network, portions of which shall, to the extent technically feasible, be capable of transmitting data at one gigabit per second or greater by 1996. The Network shall provide for the linkage of research institutions and educational institutions, government, and industry in every State. (b) ACCESS. —Federal agencies and departments shall work with private network service providers, State and local agencies, libraries, educational institutions and organizations, and others, as appropriate, in order to ensure that the researchers, educators, and students have access, as appropriate, to the Network. The Network is to provide users with appropriate access to high-performance computing systems, electronic information resources, other research facilities, and libraries. The Network shall provide access, to the extent practicable, to electronic information resources maintained by libraries, research facilities, publishers, and affiliated organizations. (c) NETWORK CHARACTERISTICS. — The Network shall— (1) be developed and deployed with the computer, telecommunications, and information industries; (2) be designed, developed, and operated in collaboration with potential users in government, industry, and research institutions and educational institutions; (3) be designed, developed, and operated in a manner which fosters and maintains competition and private sector investment in high-speed data networking within the telecommunications industry; (4) be designed, developed, and operated in a manner which promotes research and development leading to development of commercial data communications and telecommunications stamdards, whose development will encourage the establishment of privately operated high-speed commercial networks; (5) be designed and operated so as to ensure the continued application of laws that provide network and information resources security mesisures, including those that protect copy- right and other intellectual property rights, and those that control access to data bases and protect national security; (6) have accounting mechanisms which allow users or groups of users to be charged for their usage of copyrighted materials available over the Network and, where appropriate and technically feasible, for their usage of the Network; (7) ensure the interoperability of Federal and non-Federal computer networks, to the extent appropriate, in a way that allows autonomy for each component network; (8) be developed by purchasing standard commercial transmission and network services from vendors whenever feasible, and by contracting for customized services when not feasible, in order to minimize Federal investment in network hardware; (9) support research and development of networking software and hardware; and
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