The true statutory language Jamie Love complains of

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

Date: Thu, 9 Feb 1995 10:00:34 -0600
From: shaynes () research westlaw com (Steve Haynes)
To: farber () central cis upenn edu


Dave -


Lest Jamie Love's alarmist posting lead IP's readers to conclude
that the end of access to government information as we know it is
imminent, I am forwarding a posting made to another list by
Timothy Sprehe, a Washington consultant on access to government
information, that sets forth the precise terms of the proposed
statutory language, and the actual remarks of the Chairman's
Draft of the "Section by Section Analysis".


---------------------Forwarded Mail-----------------------------


Date: Wed, 8 Feb 1995 09:53:15 -0500 (EST)
From: J. Timothy Sprehe <jtsprehe () access2 digex net>
To: James Love <love () Essential ORG>
Cc: Multiple recipients of list <tap-info () essential org>
Subject: Re: Help! West Publishing seeks broad change in FOIA


Here is the actual language that Jamie Love's post refers to.


"(f)  Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter or any
other law--
     (1) any public information that an agency discloses,
disseminates, or makes available to the public may be used by any
person for profit or nonprofit activities; and
     (2) if any person adds value to the public information, the
Federal Government shall not have any right to obtain, collect,
acquire, disseminate, use, or convert --
             (A)  the resulting data, database, or other
                  information product, or
             (B)  any method used by the person to identify such
                  resulting data, database, or information
                  product,
except under terms that are expressly agreed to by such person."


The Chairman's Draft of the "Section by Section Analysis" says:


"Section 3518 contains a new subsection which is intended to
clarify that when public information, as defined in Section 3502,
is disseminated or otherwise made available to the public, it
ceases to be public information, when a person adds value to the
public information.  This resulting information product, including
data, database, or method used to identify the data, database or
information product, also ceases to be public information, and the
government cannot claim a right to reacquire or use the resulting
information product without the consent of the person adding value.
The new subsection is designed to encourage the profit and
non-profit sectors to make the widest possible use of public
information released by the government."




J. Timothy Sprehe
Sprehe Information Management Associates, Inc.
1301 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W., Suite 507
Washington, DC 20004-1701
Phone:  202-638-4333
Fax:  202-638-2248
Internet:  jtsprehe () access digex net


----------------------End Forwarded Mail-------------------------


Steve