Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for
British Columbia
June 1, 2009
Dear Stanley Tromp:
Complaint—Duty required by Act—Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure
(“Ministry”) File TRA-06-158—OIPC File F07-31 011
I am writing about your complaint that the Ministry included a copyright
advisory notice with its disclosure of records in response to your access
request under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act
(“FIPPA”).
As part of our investigation of your complaint, I had discussions with the
ministry responsible for intellectual property within government, the Ministry
of Labour and Citizens’ Services. Government has decided to cease including
copyright notices in access to information disclosures and has confirmed that,
effective immediately and government-wide, copyright notices will no longer be
issued in conjunction with disclosure of records in response to access requests
under FIPPA.
The Province has advised us, for clarity, that the fact that it will no longer
include copyright notices in FIPPA disclosure packages does not change the fact
that it “reserves the right to assert and/or enforce copyright in its materials
in appropriate cases, including situations where such material is subject to an
existing legal obligation of the Province (i.e., a licence) or someone makes
copies of something purporting to be the official version of Provincial
material, but which is out of date, and distribute those copies to others, thus
creating the potential for inconvenience, or worse, to third party recipients
of
that material.”
I appreciate the government’s willingness to revisit this issue and applaud its
decision to change its policy on the matter.
In view of this development, we will be closing our file relating to your
complaint. I appreciate your having brought this matter to my attention and
thank you for your contributions to its successful resolution.
Yours sincerely,
David Loukidelis,
Information and Privacy Commissioner
for
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Article by Stanley Tromp on B.C. crown copyright and FOI, in
the
http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=69970f8a-8f9a-4200-b41d-062707d8ea7c