AR-News: (US UT) Cause becomes more costly for animal activist

[Animalara2003 at aol.com]

Beckham hits a snag in primate freedom quest
By Cara Wieser
Published: Thursday, February 26, 2004 
The U responded last week with a $299 price tag to freshman Jeremy Beckham's 
request for primate experimentation details.

Last August, Beckham, head of the Utah Primate Freedom Project, began asking 
for documents detailing the experiments currently conducted on the hundreds of 
macaques, baboons and marmosets at the U.

The U did comply with many of the requests but to obtain the more sensitive 
protocol documents, which list the exact procedures taking place, Beckham had 
to argue his case in front of the State Records Committee in January.

The committee ultimately decided Beckham had a right to the documents but 
that the U had the right to redact, or black out, proprietary information. 
However, the committee also agreed that any expenses arising from the redaction, 
such as copying or staff compensation fees, must be agreed upon by both Beckham 
and the U.

To notify Beckham of the charges, attorney Phyllis Vetter, representing the 
U, sent him a letter dated Feb. 20. 

In the letter, Vetter informed Beckham he would be charged $137.35 for "legal 
review," $126.67 for "technical review" and $35.06 for "physical redaction."

"If you wish to obtain copies of the redacted records, please send me a check 
payable to the University of Utah in the amount of $299.08," Vetter wrote.

U officials worry that releasing the documents would make private 
information-such as researchers' names and their work-available to the public. U 
spokesperson Coralie Alder said in a Jan. 15 interview that maintaining 
confidentiality "protects the U's intellectual property rights in discoveries generated by 
the research."







full story:

http://www.dailyutahchronicle.com/news/2004/02/26/News/Cause.Becomes.More.Cost
ly.For.Animal.Activist-619633.shtml 








"The world is a dangerous place,
not because of those who do evil,
but because of those who look on and do nothing."
Albert Einstein    

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         There is no justice, just us!  
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