It is infuriating when authorities businesses attempt to conceal public data or demand a ransom for accessing it.
When a family tree analysis group requested the Missouri Division of Well being and Human Companies for public genealogical data, the division stated it will present the paperwork – for practically $ 1.5 million.
This data belongs to the general public and must be accessible to the general public, at an affordable value and with out asking questions.
So Reclaim the Information, a California-based nonprofit record-seeking analysis group, sued and gained. Now, the state has been ordered to pay $ 138,000 in authorized charges and bills after an appeals courtroom upheld a ruling that the state “knowingly and willfully” violated the Open Archives Act.
In different phrases, taxpayers need to open their wallets as a result of their state authorities has illegally tried to extort ransom for data that belongs to them.
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The Related Press reported that the dispute stems from a request for data opened in early 2016 by Reclaim the Information, whose mission is to make public data obtainable on-line to genealogical and historic researchers. Reclaim the Information and its founder, Brooke Schreier Ganz, have filed a lawsuit, claiming that even a revised royalty of $ 5,174 for the recordings was extreme.
The AP reported that Cole County Circuit Decide Patricia S. Joyce stated Missouri had violated Sunshine Legislation and ordered her to pay $ 12,000 in penalties plus authorized charges and bills. In upholding its resolution, the courtroom of enchantment dominated that the authorized charges requested by the group weren’t unreasonable.
The case won’t solely make a wealth of paperwork obtainable to researchers in family tree and historical past, but additionally permit medical researchers, epidemiologists, journalists and others to check loss of life data in 2020, the yr the COVID pandemic -19 moved to america, together with these from earlier years.
Reclaim the Information makes the info obtainable freed from cost on its web site.
Naturally, the Missouri lawyer normal’s workplace, liable for defending the Missouri Division of Well being and Human Companies, had nothing to say about it.
However the state’s well being division ought to admit that Missourians made a mistake. Then they need to publicly commit to stick to the state’s Daylight Act, which governs open conferences / archives.
Information Tribune