I blogged previously about a court case involving Santa Clara County in California that was decided in favour of free and open access to county GIS data under California’s Public Records Acts (PRA).
May 31 a different California appelate court decided in favour of Orange County which charges $375,000 for their parcel database. After trying to obtain Orange County’s parcel file at the cost of reproduction, in 2009 the Sierra Club initiated a lawsuit against Orange County under the PRA. In 2010, the Superior Court decided that the PRA exempts GIS databases from public record disclosure because the court concluded that they are “computer software developed by a state or local agency”. A California appellate court agreed with the Orange County Superiro Court that a GIS database is covered by the PRA software exclusion because it concluded that “computer mapping systems” as defined by the PRA includes software and data.
Since this decision conflicts with the another California appellate court’s decision in the case of Santa Clara County, it may take a California Supreme Court decision to resolve the issue.
Thanks to Bruce Joffe for pointing me to this.

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