§ 1.77 Assignment of priorities.

(a) Authority. (1) The Director of Information or his designee will make assignment of priorities for the U.S. Department of Agriculture for a television film company's and/or individual producer's story treatment of the subject matter, but no such priority shall limit use of the subject matter itself. (2) A priority will be given in writing upon acceptance in writing by the producer of the stipulations in § 1.75(b). The U.S. Department of Agriculture will hold the producer's treatment of the story material in confidence until the producer has made a public release pertaining to the subject. (b) Time and scope. A priority will be given on the producer's story treatment for an agreed upon period of time. Requests for cooperation with similar or conflicting ideas and backgrounds will be considered only after holder of the first priority has used the agreed upon time to develop the materials. (1) Details on priorities will be written into the agreements. (2) The Director of Information will retain the right to cancel priorities when the producer at any stage violates the provisions of the regulations or of a particular agreement, or when public interest is no longer served. (3) No priority will be canceled until the producer has had an opportunity to appear before the Secretary of Agriculture or his designee.