Often times the protection of the taxpayer is raised as an argument in support of free access to government data. That is, because the taxpayer paid for collection and development of the information in the first place it is an unfair, double burden to have to pay when requesting the information. However, a very basic argument refutes this line of reasoning. Simply because a resource is obtained through expenditure of public funds, does not mean it is available for the use of any taxpayer at no charge. None of us would think of walking into a government office to use a typewriter, simply because it was paid for with tax moneys.
User fees are neither illegal nor uncommon in the public sector.
For example, toll roads, park admission, or document certification are all forms of user fees. The above argument for user fees, however, ignores the non-rival nature of computerized databases. Unlike the typewriter example above, the use of a database by one person in no way impinges on the ability of another person to use it at the same time. However, data is frequently treated as a commodity in the private market place. It gains value by not being freely available.