In the judgement File No. 3 As 159/2015 from 20th July, 2016, the Supreme Administrative Court (further only "SAC") brought an interesting restrictive interpretation of the Act on free access to information (Act No. 106/1999 Coll.).
The plaintiff requested a complex legal analysis, which was prepared, based on a demand of the Ministry of Health, by an external subject – law firm.
After a final refusal decision of the Minister of Health and refusal judgment of the Municipal Court in Prague, the plaintiff filed a cassation complaint with the SAC.
Based on several questions resolved by the SAC in relation to the Act on free access to information, the SAC, among else, deduced that a legal analysis prepared by a law firm is chiefly a literary copyright work and the Ministry (based on an entered into Contract on providing legal services) had from the proprietary rights of the author only the right to use the work for its internal need.
The provision of Art. 11 al. 2 letter b) of the Act on free access to information (according to which, it is impossible to provide information if this would violate the rights of third parties to a subject matter of the copyright) can be applied in cases where, in a contract with an external subject, a special license for the publication of the work is not included.
This is a second judgement dealing with this issue, see as well the judgment File No. 3 As 55/2014 from 11th December, 2014 regarding the analysis – work created upon the purchase order.