1st April 2012, 04:50 PM
Surely data deposited in an HER is placed there for precisely the resons that you're being denied copying Dino? Copyright doesn't apply - if it's in an HER there's a presumption that it will be used accordingly (unless the depositer has placed specific restrictions on its use e.g. commercial sensitivity) and this supercedes copyright.
You can prove that you aren't being allowed to photocopy records, because you don't have a photocopy. It's not really a matter of whether the department in question denies it. If you complain to the Ombudsman, at worst, I'd expect the complaint to result in the production of a photocopy. If you made it clear that you were going through the complaints process every time you were denied access to something, they'd pretty soon get bored of dealing with serial complaints. Do they have this restriction in writing anywhere? That would be especially useful.
You can prove that you aren't being allowed to photocopy records, because you don't have a photocopy. It's not really a matter of whether the department in question denies it. If you complain to the Ombudsman, at worst, I'd expect the complaint to result in the production of a photocopy. If you made it clear that you were going through the complaints process every time you were denied access to something, they'd pretty soon get bored of dealing with serial complaints. Do they have this restriction in writing anywhere? That would be especially useful.