Image: Deb Goldberg

Description: Deb Goldberg, state treasurer of Massachusetts
Title: Deb Goldberg
Credit: http://www.mass.gov/treasury
Author: Treasury of Massachusetts
Permission: This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was a Commonwealth of Massachusetts public record posted on a Commonwealth web site. Massachusetts' Secretary of State has stated that such works can be copied and used for any purpose. A Guide to the Massachusetts Public Records Law, Published by William Francis Galvin, Secretary of the Commonwealth Division of Public Records, Updated January 2013 can be found at http://www.sec.state.ma.us/pre/prepdf/guide.pdf and page 7 says: “"With the exception of situations in which a records custodian is withholding records pursuant to Exemption (n), inquiries into a requester's status or motivation for seeking information are expressly prohibited. [1] Consequently, all requests for public records, even if made for a commercial purpose or to assist the requester in a lawsuit against the holder of the records, must be honored in accordance with the Public Records Law."” This is consistent with the statement at http://www.sec.state.ma.us/ARC/arcres/residx.htm: "Records created by Massachusetts government are not copyrighted and are available for public use." Concerned wikipedia editors have noticed that the Commonwealth may make unfounded allegations that copyright protections exist for state regulations based on technical codes developed and copyrighted by private organizations. Where such works/allegations are concerned, Template:PD-EdictGov and Template:PD-US-Codes-and-Standards-as-Statutory-Law may be appropriate. This template is based on official statements by the Secretary of the Commonwealth, which are not definitive in the way that a statute or a court ruling is. The more formal statement only speaks to public records posted on a Commonwealth web site, so its use for public records of the commonwealth found elsewhere is not encouraged. ↑ See G. L. c. 66, § 10(a) (public records are to be provided to “any person”); see also 950 CMR 32.05(5) (custodian prohibited from inquiring into a requester’s status or motivation); but see G. L. c. 4, § 7(26)(n) (a records custodian may ask the requester to voluntarily provide additional information in order to reach a “reasonable judgment” regarding disclosure of responsive records).
Usage Terms: Public domain
License: Public domain
Attribution Required?: No