The Colorado Independent: Colorado’s Open Records Act is an old law with some outdated provisions in it.

Last year, state legislation failed that would help align the law with our changing times and technology.

So this year lawmakers will try again— and this time they’ll have help from a key ally, the Secretary of State’s office. Part of the reason lawmakers are looking to refresh our public records law is because of a battle between The Coloradoan newspaper and Colorado State University. The Fort Collins paper wanted a digital copy of the school’s annual salary increases. The school said no because they already published a printed copy of the 4,000-person database for public view in a library. That was enough, the university said, so it denied the paper’s request for a digital copy. (A great aside here: The newspaper photographed the printed copy, digitized it, and published the 143-page document on its website.)

This year’s bill, if passed, would allow the public access to copies of digitized database records in a “machine-readable” format, “even if the government also has a copy in paper or other static format,” The Coloradoan reports. A working group of open-government advocates and bureaucrats huddled for months to work out potential kinks. The Coloradoan’s editor, Lauren Gustus, was involved in that effort. A hearing for the new bill could come as early as next week at the Capitol.

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