To amend title 10, United States Code, to allow faculty members at Department of Defense service academies and schools of professional military education to secure copyrights for certain scholarly works that they produce as part of their official duties in order to submit such works for publication, and for other purposes.

H.R. 962 would allow faculty members at U.S. military academies and Department of Defense schools to obtain federal copyrights for scholarly articles they write as part of their official duties. Under current law, works created by federal employees in their official capacity are generally in the public domain and cannot be copyrighted, which often prevents these educators from publishing their research in academic journals that require a transfer of copyright ownership. This bill would enable faculty to transfer these specific copyrights to publishers for the sole purpose of publication, though it strictly prohibits the authors from receiving any royalties or financial compensation for the work.