24 Mar

User:Elvey/Template:PD-MAGov

Nascent template?
New pageNew information since
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Village_pump/Archive/2010/01#Tempate:PD-MAGov.3F :
A Guide to the Massachusetts Public Records Law
Published by
William Francis Galvin
Secretary of the Commonwealth
Division of Public Records
Updated January 2013
can be found at http://www.sec.state.ma.us/pre/prepdf/guide.pdf and page 7 says:
With the exception of situations in which a records custodian is withholding
records pursuant to Exemption (n), inquiries into a requester's status or
motivation for seeking information are expressly prohibited. 19
Consequently, all requests for public records, '''even if made for a commercial purpose''' or to
assist the requester in a lawsuit against the holder of the records, must be
honored in accordance with the Public Records Law."
19: See G. L. c. 66, § 10(a) (public records are to be provided to “any person”);
see also 950 CMR 32.05(5) (custodian prohibited from inquiring into a requester’s status or motivation); but see
G. L. c. 4, § 7(26)(n) (a records custodian may ask the requester to voluntarily
provide additional information in order to reach a “reasonable judgment” regarding
disclosure of responsive records).
This is consistent with and justifies the statement found at http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ARC/arcres/residx.htm:
"Records created by Massachusetts government are not copyrighted and are available for public use."
The policy page Carl Lindberg linked to in 2010 doesn't exist today.

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