Thanks Francis,

On 26 Nov 2012, at 11:56, Francis Davey wrote:

> 
> They appear to be relying on section 25:
> 
> http://www.legislation.gov.uk/asp/2002/13/section/25

That tells me:

"(a) may be reasonably obtainable even if payment is required for access to it;"

That tells me that their argument that I can pay £50 to view (though not copy 
or take away), therefore FOI does not apply, is probably valid. 
> 
> But they are also saying something about copyright. As Colm says that may be 
> a confusion of theirs.

> [...] section 47 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Have a read 
> of it:
> 
> http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1988/48/section/47
> 
> What this means in practice is *if* the building warrant is open to public 
> inspection - which does appear to be their position - then they could give 
> you permission to take copies, but they don't have to if they don't want to. 
> If they are merely nervous - rather than being deliberately awkward - then 
> this point might carry some weight.
Yes. That's interesting. I find it odd that they release *planning* documents 
online as a matter of course, but not *building regulations* documents. Perhaps 
Structural Engineers are more concerned about their IP than Architects...!?

My next most sensible step I think will be to contact the owner of the 
copyright (whom I presume to be the Structural Engineer). I have no reason to 
doubt that the design is good, just the implementation - so they may be happy 
to release.

> Talk to me privately about it if you like - though my time tends to be a bit 
> limited.
Thank you for the offer, I appreciate that.
> 

Simon


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