Public IPs (Legislative Services Agency)

To Whom It May Concern:

Pursuant to the South Carolina Freedom of Information Act, I hereby request the following records:

A list of all public IP addresses leased to, delegated to, or used by LSA and their associated purpose (ie: internet access, mail server, web server, network gateway, etc.).

For any IP addresses used to provide internet access, please indicate the types of clients served by each address (ie: public wifi, servers and infrastructure, internal divisions / departments, etc.).

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 15 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

Chris Meller

Ms. Brickle,

Thank you for your response, however I respectfully request that you reconsider.

The statute you cite, §30-4-40(a)(2), exempts from disclosure "Information of a personal nature where the public disclosure thereof would constitute unreasonable invasion of personal privacy." Examples of such personal information include gross receipts in business license applications and the names, addresses, and phone numbers of handicapped individuals.

Further, the final clause of §30-4-40(a)(2) requires that the provision not be interpreted to restrict access by the public to information contained in public records. Personal information should be redacted or omitted, but the records themselves must be released.

As they have no direct or tangible bearing or relationship to an individual citizen, I do not believe that an IP address used by the LSA would fit the intended definition of personal information under this exemption.

Please note that the requested records also only supplement and clarify information already publicly available. The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), which handles IP address allocation for the Americas, shows three separate entries for the LSA:

74.254.72.224/27: http://whois.arin.net/rest/customer/C02545854
74.254.75.0/24: http://whois.arin.net/rest/customer/C02545859
206.74.205.0/24: http://whois.arin.net/rest/customer/C01921764

Thank you,

Chris Meller