New rules for reusing public sector information

Automatic summary, not yet reviewed

1. Public administrations must authorize the reuse of their documents, except those excluded by law, and the scope now includes libraries, museums and archives.
2. Documents must be offered, whenever possible, in open, machine-readable formats together with their metadata, and must be accessible to people with disabilities.
3. Fees for reusing documents are limited, as a rule, to marginal costs, with exceptions for libraries, museums, archives and bodies required to generate income.
4. Exclusive reuse rights are banned, though exclusive agreements to digitize cultural resources are allowed, as a rule for no more than ten years.
5. The law promotes open licenses with the fewest possible restrictions, and the Government must send the European Commission a report every three years on the reuse of public information.
6. The law also amends other rules: scientific societies may run the assisted reproduction registry, money left abandoned in bank accounts funds educational programs for people with disabilities, and staff of the Royal Mint (Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre) get protections.

Who it affects

• Public administrations and public sector bodies: They must authorize reuse of their documents, publish fees and provide open formats.
• Libraries, museums and archives: They fall under the law, with their own fee rules and digitization agreements.
• Companies and citizens who reuse public information: They can use public documents with fewer restrictions, but answer for how they use them.
• Workers at the Royal Mint (Fábrica Nacional de Moneda y Timbre): They keep guaranteed rights in collective dismissals linked to the transfer of euro banknote production.
• People with disabilities: Abandoned account money funds a program to improve their educational conditions.

Words worth knowing

Reutilización (reuse)

Using public documents for commercial or non-commercial purposes, without it being a public administrative activity.

Costes marginales (marginal costs)

Just the cost of copying, distributing and making the document available, with no extra profit.

Formato legible por máquina (machine-readable format)

A file type that computer programs can easily read and process.

Metadatos (metadata)

Information describing a document, such as its date or author.

Microdatos anonimizados (anonymized microdata)

Survey data with no names or details that could identify individuals.

It summarizes the law as published in the BOE. It is written by artificial intelligence and may contain mistakes: the official text is what counts. Read the official text · How we make summaries