Access to Missouri Statutes in Computer Formats

[James Love <love@essential.org>]

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TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
December 8, 1993


-    MISSOURI LEGISLATURE FIGHTS RELEASE OF COMPUTER TAPES OF
     STATE STATUTES

-    STATE GOVERNMENT GRANTS EXCLUSIVE RIGHTST TO SELL STATUTES
     IN COMPUER FORMATS, WITH ROYALTIES PAID TO GOVERNEMNT

-    LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE VOWES TO AMEND PUBLIC RECORD


The following article, written by Rudi Keller, is reprinted with
permission from the Columbia Daily Tribune (Mo).  Permission also
granted to repost this story on other computer lists.
                       -----------------------------

       LAWYERS, LEGISLATORS AT ODDS OVER AVAILABILITY OF STATUTES
              by Rudi Keller, in the Columbia Daily Tribune
                            November 21, 1993

     JEFFERSON CITY - The book containing Missouri's laws on
public records isn't a public record.

     That's the contention of Ralph Kidd, director of the Joint
Committee on Legislative Research.  His stand is being questioned
in one of the oddest lawsuits filed under the state sunshine Law.

     "I don't want to say bad things about anybody," said Patrick
Deaton, a Springfield attorney who filed the legal challenge. 
"But I don't understand how anybody can argue that the statutes
are not a public record."

     Deaton's lawsuit asks for Kidd to make copies of the
Missouri Revised Statutes's computerized text available for the
cost of copying it.  If the computer file is a public record,
Kidd must do so under the state Open Meetings and Records Law.

     But if the files are not a public record, the current
contractual arrangement that creates a monopoly for a single
vendor will remain in force.

     Along with arcane legal questions, the dispute pits lawyers
against legislators, which charges of unscrupulous profiteering
and legislative arrogance spicing the mix.  The winner gets the
right to reap the profits of distributing computerized versions
of the statutes.

     The Missouri Bar and the joint committee have been sparring
over the computer tapes for more than a year.  Milton Garber,
publisher of Missouri Lawyers Weekly, wrote the joint committee
to request a copy of the computer files last year.

     "About this time I got a letter from Chris Kelly, a member
of the committee," Garber said.  "He said "You can sue us if you
want, and you may even find a judge who agrees.  I will promise
you this, if you sue us, I'll se the lawsuit is tied up for a
year, maybe two, and see to it that the sunshine law is changed
so you won't get what you want."

     A hard-bound book copy of the statutes costs $125.  The
computer version, sold exclusively by Compass Data Systems of
Salt Lake City, varies in cost based on the number of people who
will use it.  The single copy price is $150 for lawyers and $295
for everyone else.  The state receives $50 to $80 of that amount.

     Soon, the contract will be taken over by Garber's firm. 
Garber said he had "mixed emotions" when choosing whether to
split his profits with the state or stand by his position.

     "It's just ridiculous that they would consider the statutes
not to be public records," Garber said.  "But that's the position
of the committee."

     Kelly, D-Columbia, said Garber and others were seeking the
right to profit from the work of state employees without paying a
royalty.  Deaton's lawsuit, Kelly said, supports "big lawyer
thievery.  They are coming in and taking things that belong to
the taxpayers."

     The purchase and commercial reuse of state computer files is
commonplace.  Automobile dealers use lists of new registrations
to sell car maintence services, and newspapers use computer files
to investigate state agencies.

     Kelly said he sees a difference between the news media
buying computer files and allowing other commercial users the
same right.

     "That is going to stop, too.  The committee is unanimous,"
Kelly said.  "Conservatives, liberals, everybody agrees that
these people are pirating from the state."

     Public records are defined in various ways throughout the
statutes.  In the Sunshine Law, a public record is "any record
retained by or of any public government body."

     Those records must be made available for the costs of making
copies.

     Another state law defines a record as any "document, book,
paper, photograph, map, sound recording, or other material,
regardless of physical form or characteristics made or received
pursuant to law or in connection with the transaction of official
business."

     Kidd maintains that the public records of state laws are the
original copies of bills passed by the General Assembly.  The
work of his offices to make the laws available in a usable form,
providing headnotes and footnotes.  "Our position is that is our
work product for publication of the statutes."

     Kelly said he didn't agree with Kidd that the computer files
are not public records.  "I, of course, think they are a public
record.  That is silly."

     But Kelly said he is willing to spend taxpayer money
fighting Deaton's lawsuit in order to buy time to change the open
records law.

     Deaton said he is pursuing the lawsuit because it reinforces
the public positions he took during two campaigns for Congress.

     "I don't feel out of place doing this," he said.  "This is
the stuff I campaigned against.  It is important we open our
political process and government to people with new ideas."

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