Inhoudsopgave van deze pagina:
Delen
COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
Brussels, 30 April 2004 (03.05) (OR. sv)
9069/04 ADD 1
LIMITE
JURINFO 3 TELECOM 87 PI 40
NOTE
from : to :
Swedish delegation
Working Party on Legal Data Processing
14752/03 JURINFO 23
No. prev. doc. :
Subject : Implementation of Directive 2003/98/EC of the European Parliament and of the
Council of 17 November 2003 on the re-use of public sector information
Introduction
Preparations are at present being made in government for implementation of Directive 2003/98/EC. Its provisions are already complied with in all essential respects by current laws and regulations, however, so that no legislative amendments should be required in Sweden's case.
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General comments on access to and use of documents held by authorities and courts
Under the provisions of one of Sweden's constitutional laws, the Freedom of the Press Act, individuals are, as a rule, entitled to consult and also, for a fee, obtain a hard copy of all documents held by authorities or courts. However, access may be restricted under the confidentiality rules laid down by the Secrecy Act. It is worth noting here that those wishing to consult a document do not need to disclose their identity, nor do they need to specify the purpose for which they mean to use the copy, except where a confidentiality appraisal may be called for.
Specific comments on access to and use of documents containing legal information
Legal or law information is here taken to mean legislation, preliminaries to legislation and landmark rulings by courts and authorities. There is a specific regulation requiring such information to be made available to the public via a generally accessible web site (see www.lagrummet.se), which can be consulted free of charge. Documents released on that web site are not confidential. Nor are such documents subject to copyright. There are thus no restrictions on reuse of such documents by private individuals or businesses. Members of the public therefore never need to seek permission for reuse of legal information in Sweden.
Legislation and preliminaries to it
Legislative texts are not subject to copyright or any similar protection, although copyright does cover maps, artwork, musical works and works of fiction included in legislation. Nor do authorities operate any licensing, etc. in respect of such texts. Anyone is thus free to copy the content of legislation and they may also process that content and produce and market their own legislative collections, either in print or electronically. Use of the name of the official legislative collection (Svensk författningssamling [the Swedish statute book]) is prohibited by law, however, owing to the need for the public to know which is the official one.
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All legislative texts nowadays are, as a rule, available both in print and electronically. They are thus already fully usable by the public. Texts are available electronically in the official format and there is also an electronic register of the various pieces of legislation.
Similar arrangements apply in the case of preliminaries to legislation.
Judgments and decisions
Judgments by courts and decisions by authorities also come within the public domain. Confidentiality may, however, be imposed on a judgment or decision, in whole or in part, e.g. if it involves sensitive personal details. Anyone may accordingly apply to a court or authority in order to consult a judgment or decision and also, for a fee, obtain a hard copy of it. On the other hand, only landmark judgments and decisions are made available on the web site referred to above. Such documents may also be used by anyone in whatever way and for whatever purpose they wish.
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