You Can’t Electronically Copy Copyrighted Public Documents?
This case affects every person’s Right To Know, including the press.
Training workshop binder created by school lawyers DrummondWoodsum for new Maine superintendents.
Bangor, ME - Freedom Of Access Act (FOAA) laws are not understood by many people, but it is your greatest weapon to attempt to break down the walls of the lack of transparency within the government. It is also very easy to understand, request and comply with. Back on March 3rd, 2023 I filed a Freedom Of Access complaint in Maine Superior Court against Micah Grant, Superintendent of the Hermon, ME School Department for his willful withholding of public documents, under the guise of “copyright protection.”
I revised this filing with a plaintiff’s brief on August 9th, 2023 to focus on a copyright violation, as this lawsuit is about a lack of transparency within the government and bullying tactics by taxpayer paid civil servants and taxpayer paid lawyers to purposely withhold “agency records.”
Copyrighted documents paid for by the taxpayers are apparently off limits to making electronic copies of because…well because of blood sucking lawyers.
Lawyers DrummondWoodsum are charging the taxpayers, through the government, or in this case the Hermon School Department, to use a government agency to stop citizens from being able to copy their copyrighted materials, paid for by the very taxpayers who wish to inspect and copy these public materials. You are all paying to enforce their copyright before there is any misuse of the materials! It’s a complete conflict of interest and an extreme waste of time and taxpayer resources.
Back on January 11th, 2023, Micah Grant, Superintendent of Hermon School Department denied my FOAA request for a binder he received at a taxpayer funded training workshop. It was a “public record” the moment the binder was passed out to him, in person, at the training we all paid for. He stated in his denial letter, “The FOAA training materials you requested are copyright protected…I am not authorized to make copies.”
But, I’m not, not authorized to make copies per state and federal laws.
This morphed into, I could go to the school office, in person, but could only hand scribble the information from the training binder, a part of which had FOAA training in it (more on that in a moment). Here is a pad of paper and a pen…you have one hour, starting now. Write like the wind!
Mr. Grant then made me extremely uncomfortable by parking himself directly behind me and literally counted the minutes down. He repeatedly told me I could not make an electronic copy, or take photos of the document and if I did he would end the session.
Selfie photo taken as Superintendent Micah Grant. He then called 911. (No, seriously he did.)
I wasn’t correct in my initial interpretation of the Maine FOAA law regarding inspection of documents, but the rest of the interchange is all documented in this below video on my YouTube channel and it’s so stupid, it’s comical. I urge all people ever interacting with the government to make sure to record your conversations, because undoubtedly the civil servants will make themselves look very, very stupid. Case in point:
As we neared the end of the one hour provided to me by Mr. Grant to hand scribble the 26 pages of material with some of the worst handwriting on the planet, with cramped hands, I wanted to ensure I took a photo of him acting like an invigilator. That caused him to have a mental breakdown and call the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office to escort me out of the building. No, seriously, he called 911 because I took a selfie.
So, what was in the binder? Items instructed by DrummondWoodsum’s lawyers to new superintendents in the finance section such as “Hoard your cash.” It’s not their cash, it’s the taxpayers cash and it’s supposed to all go toward education. The direction they are giving the people reporting to your local school board is laughable.
The most highly educated, dumbest people in the land run your local schools.
There is an entire training section dedicated in this binder entitled, “Seven Things Every Superintendent Should Know About Maine’s Freedom of Access Act.” In this very binder 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 it 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.
There are of course exceptions to Maine’s FOAA law: Privileged documents, including attorney client communications, student and employee records, collective bargaining materials (but not union member non-bargaining written materials), personal contact information for public employees, security plans, and notes and documents prepared for or during lawful executive sessions.
1 M.R.S. §408-A - Public records available for inspection and copying states, “Except as otherwise provided by statute, a person has the right to inspect and copy any public record in accordance with this section within a reasonable time of making the request to inspect or copy the public record.” It is very simple.
You know what is not in the Seven Things Every Superintendent Should Know About Maine’s Freedom of Access Act? Copyright protection, or the willful withholding of copyrighted materials! Maybe that was number eight and it didn’t make the cut?
A civil servant like Superintendent Micah Grant does not have legal standing to decide who, what and how a public document that has a © on it can be copied by electronic, photos, or otherwise and then how it is used. The burden of what potential misuse of a copyrighted document rests with the content owner in this case, DrummondWoodsum, to sue in civil court on their own dime under Title 17 of the federal copyright violation law.
“Fair use” of copyrighted materials is totally legal and simply common sense.
Even the Hermon School Department’s own policies prove that the superintendent was wrong. They have their own guidelines concerning the reproduction of copyrighted works by educators and students of Hermon School Department. “It is the intent of the Hermon School Committee (Micah Grant’s boss) that all employees and students of the Hermon School Department adhere to the provisions of federal copyright law.
Employees and students who willfully disregard the law and the School Department’s copyright policy and administrative procedure do so at their own risk.” In this example, the risk of my use of this material is mine and mine alone. This policy further states, “Notices shall be posted in reasonable proximity of equipment that may be used for copying materials.” The policy goes on to document the federal copyright law and “fair use.”
Federal copyright law allows for the full electronic copying of materials for ordinary and “fair use” for “nonprofit educational purposes.”
It is unrealistic for inquisitive citizens to visit all locations in person that anyone would ever want to get public documents from. Not only for in-state citizens, but for all those outside our state and other members of the press as well. To then have to hand scribble the information is ridiculous! Do you have to hand sketch a new town plan for your local downtown? A bridge proposal? A slide deck? No!
These DrummondWoodsum lawyers are paid about $350/hr for just horrible council to the vast majority of 253 Maine school districts. Taxpayers pay for 42 educational lawyers in their cabal. These schools are all just billable hours to them. They don’t care what the schools call them for. Only that they call and allow them to travel to attend meetings, push pervasively vulgar books on minor students, sexually transition your children, defend court cases against parents and taxpayers and provide direction to those people like Micah Grant. A hapless superintendent way over his skis.
These lawyers represent not only the majority of school districts in Maine, but also the Maine School Management Association and their unhinged Director of Communications, Vicki Wallack who thinks that simply asking questions via FOAA is “hate speech.” They also represent the Maine Principals Association and the Maine Department of Education. They are paid millions by the entire spider’s web of the $3 billion dollar K-12 public education industry in Maine.
The Honorable Judge Mallonee presiding over this stated this was an “unusual case” given that there is no record of a Maine FOAA case involving the willful withholding of copyrighted material. But there are three national cases that can be used to help the judge understand directionally where this decision needs to go:
Weisberg v. U.S. Dept. of Justice - Affirmed the “determination that copyrighted materials may constitute agency records under FOIA.” Appellee Harold Weisberg brought this FOIA action to compel disclosure of all 107 photographs in the government's possession that were taken at the scene of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Lindberg v. Kitsap Cty - Evelyn and Richard Lindberg's request to photocopy site and drainage plans for proposed residential developments were denied, as the government contending that federal copyright law prohibited reproduction of the requested material. The Lindbergs sued under the Public Records Act to obtain all the documents. The trial court ordered the County to permit photocopying of the documents and awarded the Lindbergs a total of $1,110.00 in costs and statutory penalties.
Robert ZELLNER V. CEDARBURG SCHOOL DISTRICT - Robert Zellner, a high school science teacher, didn't want a memo and a CD documenting his viewing of adult images and his internet searches on a public school computer. The court found there was no standing to deny the public records request of a public employee who views copyrighted materials at work. Copyrighted porn pictures on the internet is just like Micah Grant viewing a copyrighted binder!
Judge Mallonee did not rule on the case immediately and I’d give it a 50/50 shot that it is thrown out on procedure. But, if the stars align, he can indeed rule that relief can be in the form of a simple order issued by this court that directs the government body, agency, or official to comply with the law, such as…by making all public records available for inspection, or copying.
If not, we may need to go to another hearing, or trial to battle this out. This is not only for me, but for all citizens out there and all writers, journalists and members of the press. Don’t for a second think I won’t FOAA another new superintendent for their very same binder. For the record, other school districts have provided me with full copyrighted materials based on my previous FOAA requests.
Think about you never being able to get access to a copyrighted item in electronic form to be included in a story.
Filing a Maine FOAA request to any government agency is very, very easy. It can be done verbally, or better suited via email to the school board chair, or town manager in question. Use these simple words, “Provide for inspection” and then state your needs and request it in “electronic form,” they will have to send it back to you via email or thumb drive. The narrower the search the better and it will be less costly to you.
At the end of your email, state, “This is pursuant to the current FOAA laws of the State of Maine,” or whatever state you are in. You may need to insert “FOIA” or whatever your “Right To Know” laws are called. Please consult your online rules. It’s not hard folks. It is just not well known that this information is yours!
In Maine, they have five business days to acknowledge your request, then a “reasonable amount of time” to provide you a nonbinding, good faith estimate on cost and time of return. Your first two hours are free, then it is $25/hr thereafter for them to gather your items and they can charge you for manual copies. Then they have more “reasonable time” to provide you the information. It could take months, believe me, I have battled with schools unwilling to give up the goods many times.
But do me a favor, send in a FOAA today on a concerning subject in your local school district…they love to receive them. Actually, they hate to give up public documents because the more citizens know about how bad their local government is and the insane costs of poor educational assessments, the more parents will pull their kids out for homeschooling.
Pull your kids now…
Ps - I took the pad of paper and pen offered by Micah Grant with me and if you watch the video…he pitched a fit about a $1 pen. But he has no problem spending tens of thousands of dollars on unnecessary legal fees.
Shawn McBreairty - For over three years, Shawn has been exposing CRT and the hyper-sexualization of minors (“aka” grooming in the classroom) as well as many dangers within the programs, teachings and curriculum of Maine and this nation’s public, K-12 schools. He has recently taken a position on the board with the newly formed counter to the American Library Association, the World Library Association, a common sense alternative to the “Marxism” and socialism being pushed by the ALA. Most recently he’s become a #SaveWomensSports advocate with the #WayToCheatBro exposure campaign. Check out Shawn's Podcast, “Maine Source Of Truth,” which can be found anywhere you listen. Follow the podcast page on Facebook and @ShawnMcBreairty on social media. Should anyone wish to donate to Shawn’s work, you can pitch in here. He won’t keep a dime.