A reader of the blog has pointed out that Crown Copyright is again being used as a means of stopping the free flow of public information.

Craig Murray, former ambassador to Uzbekistan, received several documents from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office under the Freedom of Information and Data Protection Acts. He posted these on his website and has now received letters from the FCO threatening him with a lawsuit for violating Crown Copyright.

The whole point of freedom of information is to increase the dissemination of official information to the public. It is meant to make government more open and accountable to the people. In effect, it transforms Britain from a secretive, feudal society to a government by and for the people.

I have long argued that we cannot have real freedom of information until Crown Copyright is abolished. The situation with Mr Murray shows clearly why we must abolish these restrictive copyrights as they can easily be used by a government to control the flow of information and withhold all that which they find disagreeable or embarrassing. It is worth pointing out that such an abuse of power could never happen in the United States where, for precisely this reason, any information created or maintained by a public servant cannot be copyrighted.

If an FOI request has been accepted once, then logically it should be accepted every time. In other words, any document released under FOI is de facto in the public domain. The government looks ridiculous trying to argue otherwise.

An article in today’s Guardian:
Former ambassador posts censored passages from memoir on website

Posting on Lenin’s Blog

Anyone who doubts the restrictive effect of Crown Copyright need look no further than this example sent in by a reader of the blog who requested a map of the electoral boundaries of his voting district. Cambridge City Council wrote back to say they could not supply an electronic version of the map that could easily be reproduced for public benefit. In addition, the requester was told that the hard copy of the map supplied was for his sole use and that he could not share it with the public!

What sort of nonsense is it when the public are not even allowed access to maps of their own electoral boundaries?! Our taxes paid for the creation of the Ordnance Survey and through our council tax we pay again so that councils can access this public data. As if that’s not silly enough, we are then told we have to pay for a license if we want to publish maps of our voting wards.

Read the full response from Cambridge City Council.

The silliness is best summed up in this paragraph:

we are allowed to provide you with a single copy of a map containing the information you request. This has to be supplied to you in either a hard copy paper form or in the form of an electronic image in raster format only. In addition we are required to draw your attention to the fact that the Copyright Design and Patents Act 1988 will continue to apply to the Ordnance Survey map which will be subject to Crown Copyright protection. The Ordnance Survey map is supplied for the sole purpose of assisting you to understand the information overlaid on it. Should you wish to use the information in any other way, for example by making multiple copies or issuing copies to the public, then please contact Ordnance Survey and they will advise you as to whether or not you will require a licence.

This is the time of year when councils must open their full accounts to the public. The Audit Commission Act 1998 gives local council taxpayers a right to view all the accounts and accompanying documents for the annual audit for 20 working days. This includes the right to inspect all books, deeds, contracts, bills, vouchers and receipts relating to the audit. You also have a right to make copies of any part of the accounts and documents.

By the end of June each year, most larger councils finish preparing their accounts for the financial year ending on 31 March. Local councils have until 30 September to approve their accounts, so look out for an advertisement in your local paper around this time or call the Treasurer’s department for the exact dates. This is one of the best ways to get information and certainly sheds light on dodgy dealings, though often too late to stop bad projects going through.

Few members of the public know about this powerful right of access and councils do little to promote it beyond the minimum required by law. When the investigative journalist Michael Crick went to view his the accounts of Wandsworth council, he found he was the first person to do so in 14 years!

The Audit Commission Act allows for no exemptions for commercial confidentiality, and is therefore one of the only ways the press and public can find out about a council’s full dealings with private companies.

The Audit Commission has published an online guide: Your Rights to Council Finances. This booklet summarises people’s rights to inspect, question and challenge councils’ accounts. Councils exist to serve the public. Most have helplines and helpdesks to help local people sort out problems they may have with services, benefits and local taxes and charges.

This is one of the few laws that gives people real power to hold their public servants to account, so why not use it.