Re: [Fsfe-uk] [OT-ish] Government food data

[Kevin Donnelly]

On Tuesday 11 October 2005 12:28, Graham Seaman wrote:
> I now find that the data is only available in book form or under a
> commercial license from HMSO.

It does seem strange that the public should have to pay again to use info 
collected with public money in the first place, but it seems part of the 
landscape at the minute.  A similar instance is Welsh lexical information, 
one of my bugbears, which means that the wheel has to be reinvented.  This 
approach is a legacy of the Thatcher years (the idea was that the money spent 
by the public sector in collecting this info would be recouped by charging 
people to access it, so that the public sector "paid its way"), but strangely 
the policy has no parallel in the US, where, as you say, any statistical  
information collected by the Federal government must by law be made available 
freely.  I would argue that if this info was not worth collecting for other 
purposes, it would not be collected, so paying for it again is unreasonable.  

-- 

Pob hwyl / Best wishes

Kevin Donnelly

www.kyfieithu.co.uk - Meddalwedd Rhydd yn Gymraeg
www.cymrux.org.uk - Linux Cymraeg ar un CD