The article, exploring legal obstacles to public access of government documents and information, was published in the fall 2011 edition of the Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review. He also spoke about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement on January 7 at the Association of American Law Schools annual meeting in Washington, DC.
Click here for the Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review website to access an online version of Levine’s article, “The People’s Trade Secrets?”.
An excerpt from the abstract for Levine’s “The People’s Trade Secrets?” follows:
“The content of administered public school exams, modifications made by a government to its voting machines, and the business strategies of government corporations should be of interest to the public. At a minimum, they are the kinds of information that a government should allow its citizens to see and examine. After all, the public might have some legitimate questions for its government: Is that public school examination fair and accurate? Is that voting machine working so that my vote gets counted? To whom or what is that government agency marketing and are kickbacks involved? One would think that the government should have to publicly answer such questions, at least in a democracy.
“While initially the above does not sound too controversial, state law has made it problematic. Getting access to the information that would answer the above questions may not be easy because the person requesting the information may have to show that the information is not a government trade secret before it can be disclosed. Today, the government of the people can keep information from the people by way of the commercial, intellectual property law of trade secrecy. Strangely, the people—citizens of states and the United States—apparently have trade secrets that they themselves cannot see. In other words, there is information that the government itself creates on its own (a “government trade secret”) and that courts and attorneys general have found meet the applicable definition of a trade secret. This Article examines whether a government trade secret should be allowed to exist and, if so, whether governments should be allowed to shield government trade secrets from public disclosure.”
Click here for a report on Levine’s presentation at the Association of American Law Schools annual meeting.
Click here for more information about Elon Law Professor David Levine.