Main Content
West Virginia
Copyright Status: Yellow
Openness Score: 0.03
What is the law?
Binding, on-point law (about)
None
Advisory sources (about)
None
Public records law (about)
A limited common law right of access to public records has been recognized in West Virginia since at least 1904. See Payne v. Staunton, 55 W. Va. 202, 46 S.E. 927, 929 (1904). The West Virginia Freedom of Information Act, enacted in 1977, may be found at W. Va. Code Ann. § 29B-1-1.
Does the public records law restrict the use of disclosed records?
The Freedom of Information Act does not restrict the use of requested records; see Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Open Government Guide: Access to Public Records and Meetings in West Virginia, at 4.
Specifics and examples (about)
Status | Applies to... | Based on? |
---|---|---|
Copyrightable by statute | "video lottery game software" | W. Va. Code Ann. §§ 29-22B-202; 29-22A-2 |
Copyrightable by statute | "statewide addressing and mapping" [1] | W. Va. Code Ann. § 24E-1-7 (copyright for maps created by third-party contractors must vest in the state) |
Use restricted by administrative rule | "Materials on the Archives and History website" and "articles from West Virginia Archives and History News" | W. Va. Code R. § 82-6-5 (5.4.a. "Materials on the Archives and History website are for research, teaching, and private study purposes only." 5.4.d. "Permission to reprint articles from West Virginia Archives and History News is granted, provided: (1) The reprint is not used for commercial purposes"). |
Copyright asserted by division | Publications of the West Virginia division of natural resources | See, e.g., West Virginia Conservation, 1946 |
Where else to go
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West Virginia Attorney General's Office FOIA Handbook, available at http://www.ago.wv.gov/Documents/FOIA%20Handbook%20PDF.pdf.
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Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Open Government Guide: Access to Public Records and Meetings in West Virginia, available at http://www.rcfp.org/rcfp/orders/docs/ogg/WV.pdf.
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West Virginia Archives and History, available at http://www.wvculture.org/history/archivesindex.aspx.
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West Virginia Library Commission, available at http://www.librarycommission.wv.gov/Pages/default.aspx.
Bibliography
Cases
- Payne v. Staunton, 55 W. Va. 202, 46 S.E. 927, 929 (1904)
Statutes
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W. Va. Code Ann. § 29B-1-1, available at http://www.legis.state.wv.us/wvcode/ChapterEntire.cfm?chap=29b&art=1§ion=1#01.
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W. Va. Code Ann. § 24E-1-7, available at http://www.legis.state.wv.us/wvcode/ChapterEntire.cfm?chap=24e&art=1§ion=7#01.
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W. Va. Code Ann. § 29-22B-202, available at http://www.legis.state.wv.us/wvcode/ChapterEntire.cfm?chap=29&art=22B§ion=202#22B%2322B.
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W. Va. Code Ann. § 29-22A-2, available at http://www.legis.state.wv.us/wvcode/ChapterEntire.cfm?chap=29&art=22A§ion=2#22A%2322A.
Administrative Rules
- W. Va. Code R. § 82-6-5, available at http://www.wvculture.org/history/rules/rules.html.
Other
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Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Open Government Guide: Access to Public Records and Meetings in West Virginia, available at http://www.rcfp.org/rcfp/orders/docs/ogg/WV.pdf.
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West Virginia Conservation, 1946, available at http://www.wvdnr.gov/wwvmagazine/archive/Batch1946/1946%20-%2006%20June.pdf.
Footnotes
- [1] Most recent litigation touching on the copyright status of state documents has concerned GIS data (see, e.g., the cases in Florida (Microdecisions, Inc. v. Skinner, 889 So. 2d 871 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2004)), California (County of Santa Clara v. Superior Court, 89 Cal. Rptr. 374 (Cal. Ct. App. 2009)), New York (City of New York v. Geodata Plus, LLC, 537 F. Supp. 2d 443 (E.D.N.Y. 2007)), and South Carolina (Seago v. Horry County, 663 S.E.2d 38 (S.C. 2008))). For a general discussion of the copyright status of government GIS data, see Edward A. Pisacreta & Jonathan P. Mollod, Licensing and Commercialization Issues for Geographic Data, 45 Les Nouvelles 1, 5 (2010).