A useful ruling to quote if you’re refused an FOI on copyright grounds

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has published an important ruling relating to public bodies attempting to assert copyright on FOI responses. According to Martin Rosenbaum:

“The Commons told Mr Irving [of MySociety] that it could send him material directly by e-mail, but it would not respond through the whatdotheyknow system because the automatic web publication of its reply would breach Parliamentary copyright.”

The ICO have ruled that they must now comply, even though it means it will be published online.

Although this is a specific ruling (a similar one is due on Brent Council), it is a useful one to quote if you encounter similar objections from public bodies. Embedded above.

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