Mr. James Pitcock

*1 Panola County entered into a contract with a vendor (LMI) to purchase the vendor's land records software, and subsequently entered into another similar contract with them to purchase software to manage Panola County's court records. Three-year maintenance and service agreements were also signed. After entering these contracts, the vendor lost personnel, those personnel set up their own company, and Panola County cancelled its contract with the vendor for maintenance and service of the software after not receiving requested service and support from the vendor. Since that time the vendor has continually written threatening letters about breach of contract and copyright infringements, requesting that Panola County pay monthly fees for services that they have not provided. Panola County has entered into a new contract with a new vendor; this new vendor is owned by or employs the former employees of the old vendor.

*1 It our understanding that the data we scan into a Microsoft SQL database and indexed by our county employees belongs to us as well as the general public. LMI is telling us that we cannot provide the data to any other vendor with which we wish to do business because we would violate their copyrights. They are telling us that they are revoking our license and that moving to any other system would be in violation of copyright laws. I also request an Attorney General's opinion on who owns the data and the County's or Public's right to copy or use said data.

*1 (1) Any public body that uses … proprietary software [“proprietary software” is defined as “data processing software that is obtained under a licensing agreement and is protected by copyright or trade secret laws.” Miss. Code Ann. Section 25-61-3 (d)] must not thereby diminish the right of the public to inspect and copy a public record. A public body that uses … proprietary software to store, manipulate, or retrieve a public record will not be deemed to have diminished the right of the public if it either: (a) If [if] legally obtainable, makes a copy of the software available to the public for application to the public records stored, manipulated, or retrieved by the software; or (b) ensures that the software has the capacity to create an electronic copy of each public record stored, manipulated, or retrieved by the software in some common format such as, but not limited to, the American Standard Code for Information Interchange.

*2 (2) A public body shall provide a copy of the record in the format requested if the public body maintains the record in that format, and the public body may charge a fee which must be in accordance with Section 25-61-7.

*2 (3) Before a public body acquires or makes a major modification to any information technology system, equipment, or software used to store, retrieve, or manipulate a public record, the public body shall adequately plan for the provision of public access and redaction of exempt or confidential information by the proposed system, equipment or software.

*2 (4) A public body may not enter into a contract for the creation or maintenance of a public records data base if that contract impairs the ability of the public to inspect or copy the public records of that agency, including public records that are on-line or stored in an information technology system used by the public body.

*2 (6) Data processing software obtained by an agency under a licensing agreement that prohibits its disclosure and which software is a trade secret, as defined in Section 75-26-3, … must not be subject to inspection, copying or reproduction under this chapter.