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A&A: Can a city assert a copyright claim to a public document?

FAC June 8, 2012

Q: Can a city assert a copyright claim to a public document, in this case a short documentary produced by its cable access television department? I’m being told no, in California a government entity cannot assert a copyright claim to this video produced at taxpayer expense without the express authorization of the legislature (County of Santa Clara v. Superior Court (CFAC) (2009) 170 Cal. app.4th 1301. Is that true? Please note a group that requested

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A&A: Are State Bar records accessible under the public records act?

FAC June 8, 2012

Q: Are state bar records–specifically the budget–public documents? A: The State Bar of California is not subject to the Public Records Act. Bus. & Prof. Code § 6100 (“The State Bar of California is a public corporation[, and n]o law of this state restricting, or prescribing a mode of procedure for the exercise of powers of state public bodies or state agencies, or classes thereof, … shall be applicable to the State Bar, unless the

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A&A: Can I use public records to find out why I was denied unemployment benefits?

FAC June 8, 2012

Q: I received a Notice of Determination from Employment Development Department (EDD) stating that I had I refused a Job…and under Code 1257B will be denied U/I benefits for 10 week…” I believe that EDD was supplied with false information by a previous employer simply for relation and or harassment do to a previous administrative law appeal that I won awarding me unemployment benefits over the objections of my employer. Point being, that I’d like access

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California: Palo Alto board of education accused of violating open meeting law with confidential memos

donal brown May 18, 2012

The Palo Alto Weekly is asking the Palo Alto schools superintendent to stop sending secret weekly memos to school trustees. The newspaper claims that the memos exclude the public from the deliberative process thus violating California’s open meeting law, the Brown Act. The newspaper cited the state attorney general’s handbook on the Brown Act that warns against using confidential memos. -db From Palo Alto Weekly, May 15, 2012, by Palo Alto Weekly staff. Full story

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A&A: Is it legal to sell public records for profit?

FAC May 15, 2012

Q: Can a person request records under the CA Public Records Act and then make money off of the re-distribution of these records? For example, can the records be put on a website that has advertising or can the records be outright sold? Clearly people could still request the records directly from the agency if they wished to avoid the profit-seeking website. A: As a general matter, the Public Records act is requestor-neutral. That is,

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