california foia
Can a California county restrict redistribution of its GIS products? (even if I FOIA the data)
<p><a href="https://www.alpinecountyca.gov/index.aspx?NID=165" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Alpine County, CA makes a Parcel Map available</a> for a certain fee. Many other counties make this data available for free but Alpine County charges some $1.3k to acquire it. This part is fine, and I imagine that if I FOIA'd (or <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?division=7.&amp;chapter=3.5.&amp;lawCode=GOV&amp;title=1.&amp;article=1." rel="nofollow noreferrer">CPR'd</a>) the data it would still come out to be that sum of money. I don't mind paying this, except that I'd want to be able to redistribute this public information.</p>

<p>However, <a href="https://www.alpinecountyca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/53" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the compulsory license agreement they require from me</a> to get it restricts such use. Is it legal for them to restrict access even if I FOIA/CPR'd this data from them? I'd prefer to just buy it from them normally but if I have to pay that amount to FOIA it, I can do so too. The key is I want to be able to give it out for free like the other counties do.</p>

<p>It seems that a California court (County of Santa Clara v. First Amendment Coalition) has ruled that the California Public Records Act does not grant a basis to copyright works by the State of California. Thus assuming the work cannot be copyrighted under other statutes, requesting this information in this way will provide you access to a work in the public domain.</p>
