Data Sales: Considerations
when Selling
Kathy Berg, Utah
Julia Dale, Michigan
Jeff Landerfelt, Nevada
Tim Moss, United Kingdom
Michigan Data Sales
• Types of Data Sales
• Copies of the Corporations Division Database
• Lists of new domestic profit and nonprofit corporations, profit and nonprofit
foreign qualifications and limited liability companies for the current and
subsequent months.
• Data Format
• For the large contracts, data is transferred once a week via FTP directly to the
customer.
• The entity lists are provided in printed format.
Michigan Data Sales
(continued)
• Fees
• Initial setup charge for computer generated report is $20/request
• There is a $.03 charge per record on each list
• The costs for entity lists average $75-$100/month for new corporations and $100-$125/month
for new limited liability corporations. There are two subscribers for this data.
• A purchaser may purchase up to two copies of the complete master file (copy of
the Corporations Division database) during any calendar year at a cost of
$20,000/complete copy. Weekly updates are provided at a monthly cost of $4,500.
• There are six active data contracts that renew on a yearly basis. This results in $344,000 in
revenue each year.
• Statutory Authority for Fees
• Each of the following Acts, administered by the Corporations Division, provide for
the administrator to charge fees pursuant to a schedule approved by the State
Administrative Board
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Section 1060(6) of Act 284, P.A. 1972, Business Corporation Act
Section 1060(4) of Act 162, P.A. 1982, Nonprofit Corporation Act
Section 1107(c) of Act 213, P.A. 1982, Revised Uniform Limited Partnership Act
Section 1101(4) of Act 23 of P.A. 1993, Michigan Limited Liability Company Act
• The current fee schedule was approved by the State Administrative Board on
August 6, 1991.
Michigan Data Sales
(continued)
• Contract Specifics
• Renews at the start of the fiscal year
• When purchaser displays the data on a video terminal it must include the
following wording, or a similarly worded statement, on the menu screen, or at
the beginning of each corporation record:
• THIS DATA IS FOR INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY. CERTIFICATION CAN
ONLY BE OBTAINED THROUGH THE MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF
LICENSING AND REGULATORY AFFAIRS, CORPORATIONS DIVISION.
• Purchaser shall not sell, exchange, lease, license, transfer, or assign the
Corporations Division Data, in whole or part, without prior written consent
from the Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs
Nevada Data Sales
• Types of Data Sales
• Corporations
• Uniform Commercial Code (no collateral information)
• Active Notaries
• Report Type
• Customized
• User selects from a wide variety of “Results” fields
• User sets the parameters of the “search” criteria
• User may select to have the report run automatically
• Daily
• Monthly
• Weekly
• User may save unique searches , by name, in library of “My Data Reports” to be run only when
directed by the user
• Full, Unabridged Database Dump
• Data Format
• The purchaser of the data can select the format of the data from the following:
• Excel Spreadsheet
• Access Database
• Text File – Fixed width or delimited
Nevada Data Sales
(continued)
• Fees
• Data Download - $58,000 in FY 2014
• Subscription - $500 per month
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Unlimited reports against any available data sources (Corporations, UCC, Notaries)
May set to run automatically at any interval of your choosing
May auto-send to an FTP server
Potentially no human intervention between two systems
• Per Report - $25 per report plus $.0005 per records, maximum fee of $125
• Copy of Public Record - $2.7 mil. In FY 2014
• $2 per page
• Statutory Authority
• NRS 239.052
• provides that a governmental entity may charge a fee for providing a copy of a public record, though
such a fee must not exceed the actual cost to the governmental entity to provide the copy of the public
record.
• NRS 225.140
• Is the default authority for the fee associated with bulk data download. No statute addresses specifically
the sale of bulk data or the corresponding fee.
• NRS Title 7 - Throughout
• Sets specific fees for copies of records
• Is the default authority for the fee associated with bulk data download. No statute addresses specifically
the sale of bulk data or the corresponding fee.
Nevada Data Sales
(Continued)
Customized Reports (Corporations)
• Results Fields – Fields you want to appear
• on your report
• Corporate Actions Fields
• Action date
• Action Type
• Effective Dates
• Corporate Officers Fields
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Names
Addresses
Type
Status
• Corporation Stocks Fields
• Share Count & Value
• Corporations Fields
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Names
Addresses
Type
Status
List Due dates
• Resident Agents Fields
• Names, Addresses
Nevada Data Sales
(Continued)
Customized Reports (Corporations)
• Search Criteria – Parameters (Limitations) for Results Fields
• Corporate Actions Fields
• Action date – set date parameters
• Action Type – specify which types, such as Conversions, Dissolutions, Amended Lists, Stock
Splits
• Corporate Officers Fields
• Specify Active, Inactive, or Either
• Addresses – May limit to State, County, City, or Zip
• Type – May limit to particular type if you wish
• Corporations Fields
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Annual List Due Date – limit to particular time frame
Creation Date - limit to particular time frame
Expired Date - limit to particular time frame
Type – Domestic Corp, Foreign LLC, Service Mark, etc.
Status - Cancelled, Dissolved, Revoked, Converted Out, etc.
List Due dates
• Resident Agents Fields
• Names, Addresses
Nevada Data Sales
(Continued)
Customized Reports (General Tab)
Nevada Data Sales
(Continued)
Customized Reports (My Data Reports)
Utah Data Sales
• Types of Sales
• Corporations Data
• Includes Bulk Data downloads and image files
• Can order entire file dump or specialized lists or images
• UCC Data
• Includes Bulk Data downloads and image files
• Can order entire file dump or specialized lists or images
• Fees
• Business Entity Bulk Data
• $0.01/record for a full download
• Customized lists are available for $0.05/record with a $5/minimum search fee
• Filing images are available for $2/image
• UCC Bulk Data is $1,000 for a full download
• UCC filing images are $2/image
• How it is provided
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Reports and copies are provided in-person; via mail, fax or email.
Bulk downloads are available via email lists – comma delimited text files
Images are provided by email with a link to download – link active 14 days
Timing
• Data lists are provided as customer designates: weekly, monthly, etc
• Images and specialized lists are available on demand
Utah Data Sales
(continued)
• Statutory Considerations
• UCA §63G-2-201 states that every person has the right to inspect a public
record free of charge, and the right to take a copy of the public record during
normal working hours.
• UCA §63G-2-203 allows the office to charge a reasonable fee to cover the cost of
providing the record.
• Records of the Department of Commerce that evidence incorporations,
mergers, name changes and UCC filings are considered public records
• UCA §131-2(3) – (a) states that the department is permitted to adopt a schedule of fees
assessed for services provided by the department, including data access.
Companies House
Registrar of Companies for England and Wales
Companies Act 2006 - Functions
Registrar’s Statutory functions
• incorporating companies and registering changes to details
• dissolving companies and striking off defunct companies
• ensuring compliance with statutory disclosure requirements
• making information available for public inspection & use
…anyone has the right to inspect the register and anyone has the
right to a copy of any material on the register….
… the information exchange …
Special Considerations when Providing Data
• Personal Identifying Information (PII)
• This includes social security numbers and tax ID numbers
• How is PII defined in statute in your jurisdiction
• Is it a problem that you don’t know you have?
• How do you ensure you have “clean” data to provide to customers
• Does your contract address the PII problem
• Data providers vs. Data consumers
• Compliance issues for the data consumers
• What is the risk to the consumer who purchases data that contains PII
Special Considerations when Providing Data
(continued)
• Public Records statutes
• Jurisdictions have public records/open records statutes that require access to
records for little or no charge, how do you address these requirements when
charging fees for access to what could be considered public data?
• You need to be able to distinguish between the public data and bulk data
• Distinguish the format in which it is being provided
• Distinguish the availability and transfer of the data
Special Considerations when Providing Data
(continued)
• Transfer of the Data
• How is the data being provided to the customers?
• What is included with the data?
• If it is just a data dump, are there data fields that might contain information that you do
not want to share?
• E.g., employee reference information
• What methods are available?
• FTP
• Ensuring access is limited to the specified users
• CD/DVD
• Contracting Issues
• The PII issue
• How are customers allowed to use the data
• Corporate Records scams
• Ways to include contract language to resolve issues