Tell that to my town clerk, charging $20 to take pictures of documents with your own phone. This is based on Sec. 1-212 part g (the bottom) of state law And, as a local history researcher, it bites ass.
Technically, it’s not been my municipality that’s charged me, but those around me and where I work. I don’t vote there. My town didn’t exist when the people I’m researching were making records. And at the state level, it comes up every few years but dies in committee. Last time was in 2020, when it died due to the pandemic changes everyone’s focus. I’ll ping my local congresscritter and see if it can be revived–the person advocating for change recently retired, sadly.
I believe some things (like DMV records) are fee based. But the fee is nominal and wouldn’t stop any predator from doing bad things if they are so inclined. The only thing adding fees does is to financially incentivize keeping the data online and accessible to anybody who pays.
Simple improvement: Add a fee to access the personally identifiable information. And make the record of accessing the information public.
Not perfect, but better.
That wouldn’t fix anything. There would be a site reselling it for a lower price or a large subscription fee for a specific area.
Almost anything made by governments is public domain so it’s legal.
Tell that to my town clerk, charging $20 to take pictures of documents with your own phone. This is based on Sec. 1-212 part g (the bottom) of state law And, as a local history researcher, it bites ass.
It’s still public domain.
Accurate. I both misread your comment and I have a bee in my bonnet about a $20 fee to take pictures of something you can examine for free.
They do that because they can. Write a letter to your mayor or executive of whatever municipality that is.
Technically, it’s not been my municipality that’s charged me, but those around me and where I work. I don’t vote there. My town didn’t exist when the people I’m researching were making records. And at the state level, it comes up every few years but dies in committee. Last time was in 2020, when it died due to the pandemic changes everyone’s focus. I’ll ping my local congresscritter and see if it can be revived–the person advocating for change recently retired, sadly.
:(
I believe some things (like DMV records) are fee based. But the fee is nominal and wouldn’t stop any predator from doing bad things if they are so inclined. The only thing adding fees does is to financially incentivize keeping the data online and accessible to anybody who pays.
It might slow down people from doing it in bulk, though.