The Role for Freedom of Information Laws in Open PSI

LAPSI/EVPSI Conference Torino 09.07.2012.

Mireille van Eechoud

Institute for Information Law (IVIR)

Re-use of public sector data

1. Arrange for data to be publicly available

2. Allow re-use

3. Ensure practical and legal conditions foster alternative uses

PSI Directive operates effectively at stage 3 PSB intellectual property impacts mostly stages 2-3 Freedom of information laws mostly geared at stage 1

(access)

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Access to public sector data landscape

Freedom of Information acts (‘FOIA’) (≠ right to free speech, freedom of expression, free flow of information)

Access to legal information (publishing of laws, making public court decisions)

Specific regulation (e.g. registries: companies, vehicles, cadastral; statistics, meteo, archives)

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A bit of the public sector data landscape (NL)

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privileged access (confidentiality)

public access(openness)

general tax funded(citizen charges)

full cost recovery (user charges)

police registers

FOIA

laws, case law

statistics meteo

land registry

company registry

persons registers

vehicle register

Aspects of Freedom of Information Acts

Which public sector bodies are subject to obligations to make information ‘public’.

What documents or information is covered (incl. for example datasets, audio-visual content).

Nature of the duty to publish pro-actively and of the right to request access.

Grounds for refusing access (interests ranging from national security to privacy, from commercial or other economic interests to public safety).

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Aspects of Freedom of Information Acts II

What type of access is given (format, inspection only or copies).

The procedure to be followed. What fees apply. What use can be made of the information. What if any judicial review procedure is

available

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Council of Europe Convention on Access to Official documents (Tromsø 2009)

Focus on right to access on request (‘passive’) – procedures not conceived for bulk supply of (dynamic) data

Datasets: discretion to regard easily retrievable datasets as documents covered

Active access: much discretion as to which information is actively published, how and when

Value of PSI as an economic resource not a recognized driver

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Short term – What can EU do?

Legislative: no direct competence to harmonize FOIA (beyond environmental information)

Local access regimes essential building block in EU re-use policy – push ratification Access Convention with MS

Build on existing access provisions on environmental and more widely spatial data? – INSPIRE requires active dissemination spatial data (much of it not subject to generic FOIA)

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