In fact, in some countries computerisation of government information had a strong impact on the way the right of public access has been interpreted by the authorities. For example, when new programming was necessary to extract information from computer systems, agencies and courts have sometimes held that such programming is analogous to record creation, and is therefore not required under the freedom of information laws, which only oblige to search for available records. There is a common feature of these laws to grant access only to information which is available or ca be made available through reasonable effort As electronic records became more common, the freedom of information laws proved to be less useful in the new environment. Because the wording of these laws usually provide access to paper records, an authority was not obliged to accommodate a requesters preference for access in an electronic form, for example a copy on computer tape or disk. There are well known, especially in the United States, cases of the Government's agency refusal of making computerised records available to the party concerned in their access Today, in the United States these definitional problems have successfully been solved, with the adoption of the Amendments Act on Electronic Freedom of Information of 1996. the government information maintained in electronic format has become accessible to the public on an equal footing with paper-based documents. Though, there are still some national legislations that do not allow requesters to obtain data in machine-readable format, the process of commercialisation of the public sector information is a present development both in the United States and most countries of Western Europe. Moreover, due to the traditional concept of the right of access, as a right to request the handing out of identified documents, the right to search for documents has so far not been a recognised part of the principle of public In view of the fast growing information networks, the powerful search engines, and, generally speaking, the retrieval possibilities of electronic information increase the significance of search rights as an integrated element of the traditional right of access New developments in hardware and software technology, as relational databases and hypertext, not only computer flexibility and responsiveness to unanticipated form of requests, but also make it easy to compile and information for network access. The cost in money and effort to share information is much lower. As a result, ccess to government information can be enhanced The most recent ever rating the tendency of making legal text databases freely available to citizens is a decision of the Swedish parliament to make its on-line legal information service(Rixlex)available to the public on a free of charge basis via the Internet. sThe Freedom of Information Act in the Electronic Age: The Statute is Not User Friendly", J.A. Grodsky. Jurimetrics Journal, 19, 1990 In the case National Security Archive v CIA, a public interest research group requested an index of previously released records by the CIA under FOIA. The plaintiff group asked for the data on a computer tape or disk so that the information could be scanned electronically more quickly than on paper. The agency refused, and instead it produced a 5,000 page print-out that made a stack three and a half feet, or about a meter, high. while the group argued that the size of the print-out made analysis practically impossible, the court held that the Cia had provided the information in a reasonably accessible form, and dismissed the complaint. The Swedish Act on Freedom of the Press states that an authority shall be under no obligation to make a recording for electronic data processing available in any form other than transcript, a paper print-out. The official reason for this restriction is to prevent the provided electronic copies from ing used for any unauthorised data registration that leads to an invasion of personal integrityIn fact, in some countries computerisation of government information had a strong impact on the way the right of public access has been interpreted by the authorities. For example, when new programming was necessary to extract information from computer systems, agencies and courts have sometimes held that such programming is analogous to record creation, and is therefore not required under the freedom of information laws, which only oblige to search for available records3 . There is a common feature of these laws to grant access only to information which is available or can be made available through reasonable effort. As electronic records became more common, the freedom of information laws proved to be less useful in the new environment. Because the wording of these laws usually provide access to paper records, an authority was not obliged to accommodate a requester=s preference for access in an electronic form, for example a copy on computer tape or disk. There are well known, especially in the United States, cases of the Government=s agency refusal of making computerised records available to the party concerned in their access4 . Today, in the United States these definitional problems have successfully been solved, With the adoption of the Amendments Act on Electronic Freedom of Information of 1996, the Government information maintained in electronic format has become accessible to the public on an equal footing with paper-based documents. Though, there are still some national legislations that do not allow requesters to obtain data in machine-readable format5 , the process of commercialisation of the public sector information is a present development both in the United States and most countries of Western Europe. Moreover, due to the traditional concept of the right of access, as a right to request the handing out of identified documents, the right to search for documents has so far not been a recognised part of the principle of public domain. In view of the fast growing information networks, the powerful search engines, and, generally speaking, the retrieval possibilities of electronic information increase the significance of search rights as an integrated element of the traditional right of access. New developments in hardware and software technology, as relational databases and hypertext, not only enhance computer flexibility and responsiveness to unanticipated form of requests, but also make it easy to compile and format information for network access. The cost in money and effort to share information is much lower. As a result, public access to government information can be enhanced. The most recent event illustrating the tendency of making legal text databases freely available to citizens is a decision of the Swedish parliament to make its on-line legal information service (Rixlex) available to the public on a free of charge basis via the Internet. 3 "The Freedom of Information Act in the Electronic Age: The Statute is Not User Friendly", J.A. Grodsky. Jurimetrics Journal, 19, 1990 4 _In the case National Security Archive v. CIA, a public interest research group requested an index of previously released records by the CIA under FOIA. The plaintiff group asked for the data on a computer tape or disk so that the information could be scanned electronically more quickly than on paper. The agency refused, and instead it produced a 5,000 page print-out that made a stack three and a half feet, or about a meter, high. While the group argued that the size of the print-out made analysis practically impossible, the court held that the CIA had provided the information in a reasonably accessible form, and dismissed the complaint. 5 _The Swedish Act on Freedom of the Press states that an authority shall be under no obligation to make a recording for electronic data processing available in any form other than transcript, a paper print-out. The official reason for this restriction is to prevent the provided electronic copies from being used for any unauthorised data registration that leads to an invasion of personal integrity