Spain renews legislation on re-use of public sector information

This summer, Spain renewed its law on the re-use of public sector information. The amended law, originally dating from 2007, now implements the European 'Directive 2003/98/EC on the Re-use of Public Sector Information' (i.e. the PSI Directive).

The highlights of the new law are:

• the obligation for governments and public sector bodies to allow the re-use of documents, with the exception of information that is restricted or excluded under national law or the Directive;
• the law has been extended to libraries, including university libraries, museums and archives, and the extensive information resources they already have and are currently producing as part of digitisation projects;
• whenever possible and appropriate, the information should be provided in an open and machine-readable format, along with its metadata, thereby ensuring interoperability;
• the new law incorporates from the Directive the principle of marginal costs in the calculation of tariffs for the re-use of documents;
• tariffs are kept under control by using electronic media to publish information and by transparency in rates;
• the use of open licences is encouraged, in order to minimise restrictions on the re-use of information.