Re: ntis as a foia escape hatch?

[Carl Malamud <xxxx@media.org>]

yup.  I keep telling people that if we want to liberate the public  
domain, we need capital.  :)

basically, if it is available for sale, then that is an automatic foia  
escape.  you can ask for a review under omb a130, but that has been  
more ignored than followed, even during the Clinton Administration (it  
says that the price of government goods must be only the cost of  
distribution, not a profit center).

On Sep 12, 2008, at 11:49 AM, Aaron Swartz wrote:

> http://www.usdoj.gov/oip/foiapost/2002foiapost17.htm
>
> This does not look good:
>
> "In relation to the FOIA, NTIS occupies a special status as
> established by the Freedom of Information Reform Act of 1986 [...]
> FOIA's fee provisions can be "supersede[d]" [...] [OMB] specifically
> recognize[s] NTIS's statutory scheme as qualifying [...] Accordingly,
> several federal agencies submit various categories of records, or what
> NTIS refers to as "information products," to NTIS and then refer FOIA
> requesters to NTIS to obtain them."
>
> Old FDA reports about bad drug reactions are in the NTIS trap; they
> wanted $450 per year for them!