Judge Punts Public Right To Know Copyright Case
Currently, you have no right to copy, copyrighted public information?
Hermon, ME Supinintendment Micah Grant.
This case is about your right to know. But more than that, it is about lawyers pressing a civil servant to willfully withhold their copyrighted materials which became public documents the moment that taxpayers paid for them. The materials in question are in a binder called the “25th Annual New Superintendent’s Workshop,” which was a training paid for by the taxpayers and attended by Hermon, ME School Department Superintendent Micah Grant on September 15th, 2022.
The issue at hand is that when I requested this public information way back on December 21, 2022, Mr. Grant refused to provide it to me. He acted in bad faith. He stated via response letter that, “The FOAA materials you requested are copyright protected. While I’m not authorized to make copies you may review these…” But, I was not allowed to take photos, or make copies during that mandatory, in-person review.
One has to ask, why are school lawyers DrummondWoodsum charging the taxpayers, through the Hermon School Department, using a government agency to stop citizens from being able to copy their workshop information, paid for by the very taxpayers who wish to inspect and copy these public materials? Also, for someone who allegedly took a four hour FOAA training and sat through it again in this workshop, Mr. Grant doesn’t seem to know anything about the law he is breaking.
Unless of course, these lawyers don’t want citizens to know what is being pushed onto these new, impressionable superintendents. What these superintendents are then pushing to the administration. What the administration is pushing to the teachers. What the teachers are pushing onto your children, all with our tax dollars.
“Hoard your cash,” for example, is listed under the School Finance section.
I’m no legal expert, but that seems like a massive conflict of interest. DrummondWoodsum is getting paid by the taxpayers to offer legal recommendations to have someone else police their copyrighted materials. Then, they got paid by the taxpayers to prepare themselves for trial. Then, on December 7th, 2023, they got paid again to defend their materials in court again, all on the taxpayer’s dime!
It also sets precedent that a citizen who wants to review materials (because these lawyers won’t allow you to copy it) will now have to drive anywhere in Maine from York to Fort Kent if they want to get their hands on any DrummondWoodsum copyrighted, public documents. It’s unrealistic and against the Maine FOAA law. When you ask for electronic documents, that’s what the school, town office, or government agency needs to do.
An agency or official must provide access to electronically stored public records, including e-mails, as a printed document or in the medium it is stored at the discretion of the requestor.
As I’ve documented on my substack, where you can support my work, DrummondWoodsum is a legal monopoly in Maine. They “support” the majority of the 253 school districts here in Maine. I say support because they apparently don’t work for the taxpayers, nor the school boards, they think they are employed by the superintendents. Their own publicly paid for, legal gestapo.
It’s a multi-million dollar grift on the Maine taxpayers and DrummondWoodsum has over 40 lawyers working specifically in the educational space. Their goal is to ensure parents and taxpayers have no rights to their children and their hard earned property taxes which fuel the indoctrination of our youth in our public K-12 schools.
“Diversity, equity, and inclusion” as listed as “core values at Drummond Woodsum.” You know, the same thing that the embattled Harvard President Claudine Gay staked her short career on? DEI is another part of the Marxist agenda to separate people based on their skin color, sexuality, religion, etc. Better coined, “DIE” is killing our schools and killing our kids. Suffice to say, DrummondWoodsum are as woke as lawyers come, because they profit off the trans-cultism now within our Maine public K-12 schools. All while feeding off the tit of the Maine taxpayers.
The State of Maine has a very basic right to know law called the Freedom Of Access Act (FOAA). Nationally it is known as the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) and it could be called something different in your state. But these laws are intended to provide the public the ability to “inspect, or copy any public record…”
Except those records classified as “privileged documents, including attorney client communications, student and employee records, collective bargaining materials, personal contact information for public employees, security plans and notes and documents prepared for or during lawful executive sessions.”
There is an entire training section dedicated in this 25th Annual New Superintendent’ Workshop binder entitled, “Seven Things Every Superintendent Should Know About Maine’s Freedom of Access Act.” On page 14, it states, “Public Records is also broadly defined: any written, printed, or…electronic data…in the possession…of a school unit or public official…received or prepared for use in connection with the transaction of public business…”
This binder is literally a training manual for transactional public business. Furthermore, the binder states, “Everything on your desk is a public record, unless it fits into certain limited exceptions.” This binder was sitting on the Defendant’s desk when I came in to inspect and copy it. But Micah Grant wouldn’t let me. Will they let you? You should find out!
Copyright cannot be enacted for “fair use.”
You know what is not in the Seven Things Every Superintendent Should Know About Maine’s Freedom of Access Act? Copyright protection, or the withholding of copyrighted materials! Because copyright is a federal law. Copyright infringement can only be enacted when someone uses someone else’s content for malicious, often financial gain. This action has to be taken in civil court, paid for with their own money.
The case law supporting my lawsuit against Micah Grant and the Hermon School Department is very clear:
Robert Zellner v. Cedarburg School District - The circuit court denied High School Science Teacher Robert Zellner's request for an injunction prohibiting the Cedarburg School District from releasing a memorandum and a compact disc containing adult images and internet searches that he allegedly viewed and conducted on his school computer. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and one of its reporters, Katharine Goodloe, had requested access to the memo and CD pursuant to Wisconsin's Open Records Law.
The Journal argued that the copyright exception was intended to protect the rights of authors, not to shield the misconduct of public employees. The Journal asserted that the District, not Zellner, would be liable for any copyright infringement, and thus, Zellner should not be permitted to assert copyright infringement as a bar to disclosure of the memo and CD.
Lindberg v. Kitsap Cty - County Department of Community Development denied Evelyn and Richard Lindberg's request to photocopy site and drainage plans for proposed residential developments, contending that federal copyright law prohibited reproduction of the requested material. The Lindbergs sued under the Public Records Act to obtain the documents. The trial court ordered the County to permit photocopying of the documents and awarded the Lindbergs a total of $1,110 in costs and statutory penalties.
Weisberg v. U.S. Dept. of Justice - Affirming “determination that copyrighted materials may constitute agency records under FOIA.” This FOIA action was to compel disclosure of all photographs in the government's possession that were taken at the scene of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Included in the FBI's possession were 107 photographs taken by Joseph Louw, then employed by Life Magazine. Louw sold the photographs to TIME, Inc. and TIME submitted copies of the photos to the FBI for use in the assassination investigation.
On cross-motions, the district court entered summary judgment for Weisberg and ordered the FBI to provide him with "prints" of the requested photos. The court first held that the photos were "agency records" subject to disclosure under FOIA. It then decided that neither of the FOIA exemptions asserted by the government applied to the photos.
Also absent from this binder from DrummondWoodsum is any mention of the legality of holding a citizen essentially hostage, while making them hand write from said binder on a piece of yellow paper with a pen, while counting down the minutes in an attempt to intimidate said citizen.
Selfie taken by Shawn McBreairty of Hermon ME Superintendent Micah Grant on 2/2/23. He then called 911.
Furthermore, for the record, Defendant Micah Grant of the Hermon School Department called 911 on me when I took a selfie picture of him and I. That’s what the Defendant did to me on Friday, February 3rd, 2023, which touched off this unnecessary and overly burdensome lawsuit that the judge has effectively punted.
You see, DrummondWoodsum doesn’t want this type of information being inspected and hard copied as the public school systems are a $3 billion dollar industry here in Maine. It makes up one third of our State’s budget. A large percentage of DrummondWoodsum’s business and revenue is done on the backs of the Maine taxpayers. Unfortunately, we’ve never seen lower academic assessments in our State of Maine’s history. Pull your kids now, these schools are horrible.
As parents and taxpayers learn more about the irresponsible administration of these schools, any loss of students impacts their bottom line. The state and federal funding goes away. Maine public schools are funded at a 55% rate from state and federal taxes and 45% from local property taxes. Follow the money, it almost always gets us to our answer. Do you know how much you are individually funding in property taxes to indoctrinate children?
Maine has about 10% homeschooled students and I hope that by continued exposure, that number continues to rise.
The Honorable Bruce C. Mallonee Justice, Maine Superior Court, dismissed the Freedom Of Access Act, Maine’s Right To Know law case; Shawn McBreairty v. Superintendent Micah Grant, then School Board Chair Jesse Keith and then Vice-Chair, now ex-School Board Member Kristen Quinn Shorey and the Hermon School Department, a department of the Town of Hermon, ME.
Judge Bruce C. Mallonee dismissed my FOAA case against a public school because I ended up getting the records.
Judge Bruce Mallonee stated in his dismissal letter, “This case arises out of Plaintiff Shawn McBreairty's efforts to obtain copyrighted materials in the possession of Defendants. Mr. McBreairty postured his case as a Rule 80B complaint, to which he appended an independent claim. Defendants viewed the case as a request for documents pursuant to Maine's Freedom of Access Act and filed a Statement of Position pursuant to 1 M.R.S. § 409 (1).”
The court conducted a hearing on December 7, 2023, at which I represented myself “pro-se” and Defendants were represented by DrummondWoodsum Attorney Melissa Hewey.
“Mr. McBreairty raised interesting points as to the mechanism by which certain types of documents should be made available to those seeking them under the FOAA. During the course of the hearing, however, it developed that Mr. McBreairty is now in actual possession of all the documents he requested from Defendants,” Judge Mallonee stated.
The DrummondWoodsum copyrighted public material in question.
“The questions of process Mr. McBreairty raised are therefore beyond the court's authority to decide in this case. Both Defendants' motion for partial judgment on the pleadings and the case as a whole must be DISMISSED as MOOT. No costs to either party.”
For the record, I had to schedule a second session on my own personal time to go back to the Hermon Superintendent’s Office and rather than scribble the remaining information on paper, I scanned the binder into my phone. But because I got the information by my own devices, the case is apparently “moot.” I believe this is a short sighted ruling by Judge Mallonee and I wished he had been clearer on the violations by Micah Grant. It’s essentially a tie and tie goes to the pro-se litigator.
So, we’ll have to do it all again at the behest of the Maine taxpayers!
On December 27th, 2023, I FOAA requested the Hermon School Department for inspection in electronic form (they have to send it back via PDF) for the most recent edition of the “Maine School Law and Practice for Board Members - A Practical Guide by DrummondWoodsum.” That acknowledgment of my request is due today, per Maine FOAA law.
I’ll be filing again in Bangor, ME Superior Court soon thereafter. If you wish to help pitch in to the estimated $500 filing fees and expenses, I won’t keep a dime, please consider chipping in at:
www.GiveSendGo.com/ShawnMcBreairty
This case affects every person trying to simply gain access to our own public documents, paid for by WE THE PEOPLE. It also affects every journalist and writer out there who ever wants to get electronic copies from the government for a story that is not directly in their backyard. Or, based on this ruling, you’ll have to drive there and scribble down information with pen and paper.
You can read the entire original Plaintiff’s Brief by clicking this link, here and for reference, this is Bangor, ME Superior Court Docket Number PENSC-APP-2023-0003 if anyone wants to dig up all the info.
I’d enjoy engaging with any right to know lawyers out there who may offer an amicus brief on this, or assist me with my upcoming case. They will be almost identical. Until we hold public servants accountable, our rights continue to be taken away.
This time, I’m going to win!
Shawn McBreairty has been called “America’s Most Dangerous Dad” for being an Educational Freedom Advocate; standing up for students, parents, taxpayers and teachers who have not yet found their voice. For over three years, he has taken on the calling of becoming a subject matter expert, exposing Critical Race Theory, the hyper-sexualization of minors and the insanity of the introduction of males into female sports in Maine and across the country. He’s done it on a global level like no one else. His passion for the Truth and use of ridicule against the left drives them wild.
He’s a member of the board with the World Library Association, a common sense alternative to the “Marxist, lesbian, site of socialist organizing,” American Library Association. Check out the education podcast, Maine Source Of Truth, anywhere you listen. Please consider pitching in to help offset his substantial legal costs by going to www.GiveSendGo.com/ShawnMcBreairty and he won’t keep a dime. Follow him online @ShawnMcBreairty.
Stand beside him, stand behind him, or get the hell out of the way. It is time to take the fight to them!