LISLE, IL. (ECWd) –
During its December 19, 2016, school board meeting, the Lisle CUSD 202 school board tried really hard at making school board videos difficult, when it could be as easy as simply placing the video on their website, make it available for download without restrictions, and forget about it.
Instead, this school board thinks they can exercise some type of control on how public records are being used and distributed – as if they can stop anyone from using it in a way they do not appreciate.
Has this school board forgotten who they work for?
The “purpose” of the video is fulfilled by placing it on the website. Trying to decide on whether or not to keep the videos online if other people use it in some way, is ridiculous – online or offline, it is a public record. Blocking video from being directly downloaded will not work, they will simply have to be provided under FOIA, creating more work for school staff.
Lisle CUSD 202 wasted 18 1/2 minutes of conversation – they can never get that time back.
Video is a “public record” (like meeting minutes, etc) and any attempt at keeping the public from downloading the videos will simply result in more time and expense of school district personnel to answer FOIA requests for copies of the video – which must be provided to the requester without restrictions on its use.
The Illinois Department of Transportation tried that with a spreadsheet of red-light cameras – only to be shot down by the Appellate Court, which said: “A fear of manipulation or misuse of the information is not an exemption under section 7 of FOIA upon which IDOT could justify withholding the unlocked version of the Excel spreadsheet. We decline to create such an exemption.” ¶ 35 FAGEL v. Department of Transportation, Ill: Appellate Court, 1st Dist., 1st Div. 2013. The FOIA requester in that case was awarded more than $12,000 and IDOT was ordered to provide the unlocked public record.
LISLE CUSD 202 appears to have a “fear of manipulation or misuse of the information” as is evident in the video clip below from their December school board meeting video. They cannot place any restrictions on the use of any public records, including meeting videos, and anyone can take any snippets from it, and rearrange any of the video parts to produce a completely different video if they like to.
Illinois School Districts cannot make anyone ask for permission to use it or for permission to chop it up and use it in any way they see fit.
A school district’s meeting video cannot use the “creator license” or “limitations on use” or any other restriction whatsoever. There are no limitations and a school district cannot copyright the meeting video for any reason(s).
The copyright notice makes Lisle CUSD 202 look less transparent by claiming that people have to ask them for permission to use this public record how they see fit. It is PUBLIC RECORD (the same as any other public records) where they can take it and edit it as they see fit. Do they copyright any of the paper documents coming out of the district? Now do you see how ridiculous this subject is?
Another video clip from Lisle CUSD 202 school board meeting video used without obtaining their permission:
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