News from abroad: UK open statutes & RFID in Canadian coins

Submitted by jrjacobs on Wed, 2007-01-10 21:32.

I know we usually focus on US documents, but it's good to look at what's happening in other countries once in a while.

BoingBoing, one of my favorite blogs, frequently posts information of interest to libraries, and today was a banner day.

The first post of interest was a story about the UK's new *free* statutes database. The UK Department for Constitutional Affairs, after 13 years in the works, has launched the Statute Law Database project. Before this, access to consolidated versions of the law of the UK wasn’t possible without paying lots of money to a private publisher. While the writer mentioned that the situation in the US was similar with access dominated by Westlaw and LexisNexis, a kind commenter pointed out that West and Lexis indeed dominate case law access, but US code could be freely accessible via GPOAccess, Thomas and Cornell's Legal Information Institute.

A little closer to home, The US counter-intelligence office of the U.S. Department of Defense recently related that Canadian coins containing tiny transmitters have mysteriously turned up in the pockets of at least three American contractors who visited Canada. Evidently, this is one way that foreign agents use to illicitly acquire military technology.

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UK conflict between free and fee govinfo

Submitted by jajacobs on Mon, 2007-01-15 21:12.

It is worth quoting a bit from the BBC story (Government looks at data shake-up, BBC, 12 January 2007) about this to see how the conflict between "free" government information and fee-based and restricted-access government information is playing out in the UK:

It marks a "sea-change" in the way government information becomes available to the public.... [because] "The problem is that government departments are selling the data that has been gathered by our taxes. This represents a conflict of interest and it is not a level playing field if the government both holds the data and is able to exploit it commercially."

...It is a victory for campaigners who think public sector information should be free for the public to use.

...It has been ten years in the making and has eaten up public funds along the way. Because of this, the government was keen initially to make some money back on it.

...Although much of government information is free to look at on the web, the issue gets more complicated when it comes to reproducing it.

...Ordnance Survey maps, carry hefty fees for re-usage. "In the case of Ordnance Survey the government is dependent on the income it generates to cover the cost of making the maps," said Mr Wretham.

..."The reason we require licensing is to ensure that government information is not misrepresented or used to mislead the public."

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