[tedunangst]

So in one world, Maine emails back "that report costs $750. Agree or disagree?" If you agree, you mail them a check, and two weeks later they process the payment and send the report. Apparently that's ok.

But it's kind of slow and tedious. They can expedite the process by just including the report. Open if you agree. Delete if you don't. Or even defer the decision until later, but there's an "instant unlock" option available at any time. That seems a lot better than the above alternative.

Maybe Maine flubbed the implementation, but it seems like a "for your consideration upon agreement" facility should exist that doesn't require multiple round trips. Certainly more convenient than the alternative.

[0care]

I would argue that $750 to email a copy of a proposal is not "reasonable." I don't see anywhere in the statue that allows for payment of legal fees:

http://www.maine.gov/foaa/faq/index.shtml

This is all irrelevant if they sent the information before agreeing on payment terms.

[danso]

While some jurisdictions have been able to block data requests on the argument that they contain private intellectual property -- the case that comes to mind is Ohio, which won a case against providing map data because somehow the ArcGIS software used to create/save the map was inextricable (yes, it's as absurd as it sounds -- this doesn't seem to be the case here.

According to MuckRock, Maine allows for fees of $15/hour for search and copying time. If they demanded $750 before sending the file or making it otherwise accessible, MuckRock could challenge them to provide the record showing 50 hours of billable work.