Bill > A5613

Introduced Session

This bill makes various changes to the process for submitting a request for access to a government records under the law commonly referred to as the open public records act when the record will be used for commercial purposes. The bill: requires a requestor to use the form adopted by the public agency to submit a request for access to a government record; requires that a written request for access to a government record state that the record will be used, or will not be used, by that requestor or another person for a commercial purpose. limits such requests to not more than two per month to any one custodian. require the requestor to provide the requestor's name. requires that when a requestor is found to have intentionally failed to inform the custodian that the government record will be used for a commercial purpose, the requestor will be reported to the Government Records Council and prohibited from submitting any other request for access to any custodian for a period of one year. The council will maintain the names of such requestors reported to it. provides for a penalty for intentionally failing to certify that a records request is for a commercial purpose of $500 for the first offense, $1,000 for the second offense, and $1,500 for each subsequent offense. Penalties may be imposed by the courts or the council. defines "commercial purpose" to mean the direct or indirect use of any part of a government record for sale, resale, solicitation, rent or lease of a service, or any use by which the user expects a profit either through commission, salary, or fee. "Commercial purpose" shall not include using, distributing, gathering, procuring, transmitting, compiling, editing, disseminating, or publishing of information or data by the news media, or any parent, subsidiary, or affiliate of any news media, or by any news, journalistic, educational, scientific, scholarly, or governmental organization.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Joe Danielsen (D)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Oversight, Reform and Federal Relations Committee (on 06/15/2023)

Official Document