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CAPITAL REGION
Do-ityourself document copies at issue
BY EDWARD MUNGER JR. Gazette Reporter

    It wasn’t so long ago that if you needed a copy of a public record, there was a price: a per-page copying fee.
    But advances in copying technology, from cellphones that can take photos to pen-sized document scanners, have made it possible for people to digitally copy documents on their own, free — other than the cost of the devices.
    Now some county clerks, caretakers of many of the kinds of documents that people seek, are restricting and even banning this kind of portable, do-it-yourself copying.
    Montgomery County Clerk Helen A. Bartone has banned all cameras, copiers, scanners and camera phones from her offi ce.
    Schoharie County Clerk Indica Jaycox said how best to deal with this new technology is a topic of interest to many county clerks.
    “Of course, there’s no general law that says you cannot bring in, say, a cellphone or a small, handheld scanner, as long as it’s not interrupting other people,” said Jaycox, adding that such incidents were rare in her office. But she said she understands people’s desire to get what they can for free, especially in these diffi cult fi nancial times.
    “People don’t want to pay for a copy, especially if you only need a couple copies. It’s cheaper to use a cellphone or hand-held scanner. We don’t mind, it’s not a problem,” she said.
    Robert J. Freeman, director of New York State’s Committee on Open Government, said there are no laws giving county clerks the ability to restrict the way people access and record public information.
    “To the best of my knowledge there is simply no law that deals with the issue at all,” Freeman said. “If you want to go into the town clerk’s offi ce, the school district and you want to photograph records, you have the right to do so.”
    Some county clerks in the region say they ban equipment that is disruptive or needs to be plugged in. Bartone said “If you bring in your laptop … you’re using county electricity.”
    But even battery-operated scanners or cellphone cameras, neither of which require county electricity, are not allowed in Bartone’s offi ce.
    “Everybody else is paying for things, so we just don’t allow that and I don’t believe any other county clerks do either, and if they do, they charge,” Bartone said. The policy doesn’t limit the public’s access to public information, it simply requires people pay to get copies. “We don’t give it for free; we have to pay for our supplies.”
    There is no prohibition, Bartone said, against somebody coming in with a pen or pencil and copying down documents by hand.
    But Russ Haven, legislative counsel for the New York Public Interest Group, said the collection of public documents is a service paid for by taxes collected from the public, so the government should not be fi nding ways to make the public pay for records. “You should be able to get public records for free if you are not asking the government to make a paper copy.”
    Like Freeman, Haven said he believes the practice of banning cameras and other copy devices is illegal, a way to deter people from looking at public information.
    Montgomery County isn’t the only county banning portable scanning devices. In central New York’s Onondaga County, the clerk’s offi ce doesn’t allow laptops, netbooks, scanners, cameras — including cellphones — or fl ash drives.
    Saratoga County Clerk Kathy Marchione said people are not allowed to bring in gear that has to be plugged in because it uses county electricity and poses a safety hazard when equipment isn’t mounted.
    Flash cameras are banned because they may disrupt other people in the offi ce.
    Marchione said she is aware most cellphones have cameras and the office does not regulate them, or the use of battery-powered laptop computers used to type information.
NO LEGAL BASIS
    State laws limit the amount of money county clerks may charge for a photocopy to 65 cents per page. But those laws are old, Freeman said, and many were written before the advent of digital technology.
    “Part of the rationale, I think, for those provisions of law is to allow county clerks to raise revenue so they can maintain the offi ce and functions. Those laws, for better or for worse, are pretty old. They don’t envision situations where information is maintained electronically,” he said.
    It’s hard to determine, for example, how much a single page of information — downloaded electronically — should cost, he said.
    “Nobody really knows the answer. This movement, if you will, toward precluding the use of a camera or a scanner in the offi ce of county clerk, I believe is not based on any provision of law,” Freeman said. “I don’t know where this is going to go.”
    Lise Bang-Jensen, senior policy analyst at the Empire Center for New York State Policy, said she has used cellphones to take pictures of documents and she believes it is not in the right of clerks to ban the popular technology.
    “It certainly violates the spirit of freedom of information. What’s the difference between using a pen and a camera?” Bang-Jensen said. There are also more opportunities to get things wrong if people are forced to write out notes if they don’t want hard copies made at the clerk’s office. ....................>>>>....................>>>>.................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01102&AppName=1

The days of 'copying' public records have changed. Government is going to have to find other ways to obtain revenues. Just like the post office has to since the inception of on line bill pay and emails.

Actually, it should lower the cost of running government since not as many employees will not be needed to copy any public records in this digital society. As long as someone is driving to a location, taking their own pictures of documents, with their own device (that is not intrusive)....there should be no charge!

......or....just email the requested public records to the requester!! Simple, quick and cheap!