Re: WATPA: FW: Privatizing Congressional Hearings (Slate)

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From: Maurice J. Freedman (freedman@wls.lib.ny.us)
Date: Tue Jun 27 2000 - 13:43:10 EDT

People shouldn't be paying fees for access to govt documents and govt
information. To buy and own hard copies, there have been modest charges, but
people can go to depository libraries (land grant university libraries and
others) and access those documents for free . To access machine-readable
versions of them should be free at the depository libraries, public libraries,
places like the Library of Congress, Superintendent of Documents, and any other
agency that wishes to be in the distribution loop.

Taxes have already paid for these documents to be written, produced and put in
electronic format. Bringing in private industry to profit off of the taxpayer's
investment denies information to those who cannot pay the fees, imposes market
thinking on their dissemination (why should the company disseminate those
documents that are rarely if ever accessed), and lastly, it's part of the
overall selling off to the private sector of the taxpayer's investment in
government that started with Jimmy Carter & has snowballed ever since.

Mitch

Dr. Maurice J. Freedman
Director (914) 674-3600 x223
Westchester Library System fax: (914) 674-4185
410 Saw Mill River Road freedman@wls.lib.ny.us
Ardsley, New York 10502 Web site: http://www.wls.lib.ny.us
************************************************************************
"I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places..."

"D. Menken" wrote:

> What's a "small fee"? Does it stay small? Who sets it? Is there an
> exclusivity (i.e., a monopoly)? The amount I pay as a lawyer to West Group
> for essentially public info (cases) is staggering. What about paying money
> to a private entity for the ability to download legal forms?
>
> David Menken.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: YTdave@AOL.COM [mailto:YTdave@AOL.COM]
> Sent: Tuesday, June 27, 2000 12:23 PM
> To: watpa@westnet.com
> Subject: Re: WATPA: FW: Privatizing Congressional Hearings (Slate)
>
> I agree, people are entitled to be paid when they render a service. I don't
>
> mind paying a small fee to have some business collect and disseminate public
>
> documents. Otherwise, it just gets paid from tax dollars.
>
> Dave Wright 

--
Mitch

Dr. Maurice J. Freedman
Director                                    (914) 674-3600 x223
Westchester Library System      fax: (914) 674-4185
410 Saw Mill River Road          freedman@wls.lib.ny.us
Ardsley, New York 10502       Web site: http://www.wls.lib.ny.us
************************************************************************
"I'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places..."

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