 ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TEXAS GREG ABBOTT | |
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January 21, 2009 Mr. Scott A. Kelly Deputy General Counsel Texas A&M University 200 Technology Way, Suite 2079 College Station, Texas 77845-3424 OR2009-00835 Dear Mr. Kelly: You ask whether certain information is subject to required public disclosure under the Public Information Act (the "Act"), chapter 552 of the Government Code. Your request was assigned ID# 332647. Texas A&M University (the "university") received a request for three categories of information pertaining to a named individual. You claim that portions of the submitted information are excepted from disclosure under sections 552.117 and 552.137 of the Government Code, and you claim that some information is protected under copyright law. (1) We have considered your arguments and reviewed the submitted information, a portion of which you state is a representative sample. (2) Section 552.117(a)(1) excepts from disclosure the home addresses and telephone numbers, social security numbers, and family member information of current or former officials or employees of a governmental body who request that this information be kept confidential under section 552.024. Whether a particular piece of information is protected by section 552.117 must be determined at the time the request for it is made. See Open Records Decision No. 530 at 5 (1989). Therefore, the university may only withhold information under section 552.117(a)(1) on behalf of current or former officials or employees who made a request for confidentiality under section 552.024 prior to the date on which the request for this information was made. You inform us that prior to the date the information request was received, the university employee named in the request elected to keep his personal information confidential. Accordingly, we agree that you must withhold the information you have marked under section 552.117(a)(1). You assert that some of the remaining information is subject to section 552.137 of the Government Code. Section 552.137 excepts from disclosure "an e-mail address of a member of the public that is provided for the purpose of communicating electronically with a governmental body" unless the member of the public consents to its release or the e-mail address is of a type specifically excluded by subsection (c). See Gov't Code § 552.137(a)-(c). The e-mail addresses you have marked are not of a type specifically excluded by section 552.137(c). Further, you represent that the owners of the email addresses at issue have not consented to release. Therefore, the university must withhold the e-mail addresses you marked, as well as the additional e-mail address we marked, under section 552.137 of the Government Code. You assert that some of the submitted information is protected by copyright. A governmental body must allow inspection of copyrighted materials unless an exception to disclosure applies to the information. See Attorney General Opinion JM-672 (1987). An officer for public information also must comply with the copyright law, however, and is not required to furnish copies of copyrighted information. Id. If a member of the public wishes to make copies of copyrighted materials, he or she must do so unassisted by the governmental body. In making copies, the member of the public assumes the duty of compliance with the copyright law and the risk of a copyright infringement suit. See Open Records Decision No. 550 at 8-9 (1990). In summary, the university must withhold the information marked under sections 552.117(a)(1) and 552.137 of the Government Code. The remaining information must be released, but any copyrighted information must be released in accordance with copyright law. (3) This letter ruling is limited to the particular information at issue in this request and limited to the facts as presented to us; therefore, this ruling must not be relied upon as a previous determination regarding any other information or any other circumstances. This ruling triggers important deadlines regarding the rights and responsibilities of the governmental body and of the requestor. For more information concerning those rights and responsibilities, please visit our website at http://www.oag.state.tx.us/open/index_orl.php, or call the Office of the Attorney General's Open Government Hotline, toll free, at (877) 673-6839. Questions concerning the allowable charges for providing public information under the Act must be directed to the Cost Rules Administrator of the Office of the Attorney General at (512) 475-2497. Sincerely, Reg Hargrove Assistant Attorney General Open Records Division RJH/eeg Ref: ID# 332647 Enc. Submitted documents c: Requestor (w/o enclosures)
1. Although you initially raised sections 552.101 and 552.110 of the Government Code, you have not
submitted arguments explaining how these exceptions apply to the submitted information. Therefore, we
presume that you have withdrawn these exceptions. See Gov't Code §§ 552.301, .302.
2. We assume that the representative sample of records submitted to this office is truly representative
of the requested records as a whole. See Open Records Decision Nos. 499 (1988), 497 (1988). This open
records letter does not reach, and therefore does not authorize the withholding of, any other requested records
to the extent that those records contain substantially different types of information than that submitted to this
office.
3. We note that the information being released contains the requestor's e-mail address, to which he has
a special right of access under section 552.023. See Gov't Code § 552.023(b) (governmental body may not
deny access to person to whom information relates or person's agent on grounds that information is considered
confidential by privacy principles). We note that because the requestor has a special right of access to this
information in this instance, the university must again seek a decision from this office if it receives another
request for the same information from another requestor.
POST OFFICE BOX 12548, AUSTIN, TEXAS 78711-2548 TEL: (512) 463-2100 WEB: WWW.OAG.STATE.TX.US |