Edward Vielmetti

I’m trying to figure out how to appeal a FOIA request where the documents that were provided were all document images (bitmaps) with the word DRAFT overprinted, and where the resulting text was not searchable.

I believe that originals must exist that would let me search through the text, rather than tediously go through each page by hand. I’m not sure that I have standing to appeal. (I’m in Michigan, if that matters; the relevant case law is Zeeff v City of Ann Arbor which addresses the question of electronic records vs paper records, but doesn’t tackle this question head on.)

thanks

Ed

Edward Vielmetti

Alternatively, I’m sure that I could OCR the text; suggestions for tools to do that from a PDF and return a document that has images and text welcomed.

Shawn Musgrave

I have certainly appealed the quality of images produced – and in MA and the federal level, you are entitled to the native format. Is this the case in Michigan?

-Shawn