[GSDI Legal Econ] Fwd: [GISCI Board] Update on Santa Clara County Public Records Lawsuit

[Roger Longhorn]

Thanks for this, Francis, also copied to the GSDI Legal & Socioeconomic 
Working Group

Roger

Francis Harvey wrote:
> Hi,
> You too might be interested in this. 
>
> Francis
>
>
> Begin forwarded message:
>
>> Heads-up Update on Santa Clara County Public Records Lawsuit
>> *
>> *March 13, 2008
>>
>> Dear Colleague,
>>
>> I'm writing you because you have been interested in the Open Data 
>> Consortium's campaign to enable public access to geographic 
>> information that is created, maintained, and used by local 
>> government.  As you know, the California First Amendment Coalition 
>> (CFAC) won its lawsuit against Santa Clara County last June, 
>> compelling the County to provide its digital basemap for the cost of 
>> duplication, under the terms of the California Public Records Act 
>> (CPRA). 
>>
>> To date, however, the County has not changed its data distribution 
>> policy.  The County appealed the decision, and continues to sell its 
>> digital basemap for over $ 150,000 to current "subscribers."  Since 
>> June, 2007, it also refuses to sell or distribute its geodata to new 
>> customers.  
>>
>> *On March 13, 2008, the California Court of Appeals decided to review 
>> this case.  All arguments and amicus letters must be received by the 
>> Court by April 10. 
>>
>> *This is a *preliminary heads-up notice* for you to consider how you, 
>> your organization and your professional associations may want to 
>> support the plaintiff, CFAC, in confirming its right, as a member of 
>> the public, to copy and use public geodata unfettered by high fees or 
>> license restrictions.   The GIS Community can be particularly 
>> persuasive to the Court as, indeed, this case concerns a core value: 
>> keeping areawide government geodata accessible for analysis and use.  
>> Four issues are most relevant to the Court's deliberation:
>>
>> 1)      National security considerations in restricting GIS basemap 
>> data - public benefit from access to government geodata vs the 
>> probability of harm from its distribution.  Note that the County 
>> obtained a "presumptive" classification of  its basemap data as 
>> Protected Critical Infrastructure Information, even though no 
>> infrastructure pipelines appear in the geofile. 
>>
>> 2)      Balance test - examples of benefit to the public from uses 
>> with access to government geodata vs the ostensible cost to the 
>> county if sales revenues are denied. 
>>
>> 3)      Copyright by public agencies - the public's need to view and 
>> analyze government data independently in order to keep government 
>> accountable to the people vs the county's contention that it can 
>> copyright and control the information is needs to fulfill its 
>> mandated operations.
>>
>> 4)      Technical GIS questions, such as (a) the distinction between 
>> data (accessible under CPRA) and software (exempted), (b) the ability 
>> to export data from a GIS database without including software tools 
>> to the recipient, (c) the inclusion of data models and metadata as 
>> necessary components of data.
>>
>> Your opinion, and participation can influence the outcome of this 
>> important case.  Please note, however, that *Amicus briefs must be 
>> submitted to the Court in a very specific manner*; attorney 
>> supervision is necessary.  Therefore, please consider how your 
>> organization could contribute to a collective brief written on behalf 
>> of several organizations, as well as what action you are willing to 
>> take on your own. 
>>
>> Please let me know if you or your organization can help.
>>
>> Time is of the essence.
>>
>> Also, do let me know if you do not want to be further involved, and 
>> I'll remove you from the eMail list.
>>
>> Thank you for your prompt response.
>> Bruce
>>
>> *Bruce Joffe, GISP
>> Open Data Consortium project
>> c/o GIS Consultants
>> 1212 Broadway, Suite 610
>> Oakland, CA  94612
>> 510-238-9771
>> GIS.Consultants at joffes.com <mailto:GIS.Consultants at joffes.com>*
>>
>> References:
>> *California Superior Court's decision in the CFAC v. Santa Clara 
>> County case* (No. 1-06-CV-072630) in 2007 
>> (http://www.cfac.org/content/cfac_v_santaclara.PDF). 
>>
>> *Description of the case's arguments and rebuttals*, 
>> www.OpenDataConsortium.org <http://www.opendataconsortium.org/>
>> *_Click here for detailed analysis of Santa Clara County Lawsuit 
>> (PDF, 1.4 MB) <http://www.opendataconsortium.org/documents/CFAC.pdf>_*.
>>
>>
>