Agreement on creation of the Lovdata Foundation

As regards the background for creating the Lovdata Foundation reference is made to the aide-memoire enclosed as Appendix 2.

1. The State (the Ministry of Justice) and the Norwegian Statute Book Foundation (The Faculty of Law at the University of Oslo) do hereby create the Lovdata Foundation.

2. The creating parties have stipulated terms for the Foundation, which are enclosed as Appendix i to this Agreement.

3. The Foundation shall have a basic capital of NOK 600,000. The Ministry of Justice shall contribute NOK 400,000 in cash, whereas the Norwegian Statute Book Foundation shall contribute NOK 200,000 to be effected by Lovdata taking over the former Lovdata's word processing equipment and other office equipment free of charge.

4. In addition to the basic capital, the database containing the 1979 edition of the Norwegian Statute Book shall be placed at the disposal of Lovdata free of charge.

Lovdata shall be obliged to update and maintain the data base.

5. Lovdata shall have the benefit of the know-how accumulated by the former Lovdata. No special charge shall be made for the know-how, but this factor has been taken into account at the stipulation of the creating parties' contributions towards Lovdata's basic capital, so that the contributions are considered as being approximately equal.

6. On the condition that the Storting (The Parliament) makes the necessary capital available under Chapter 400, item 21, the Ministry of Justice will, in the course of the month of January 1982, pay to the Norwegian Statute Book Foundation NOK 225,000 for partial coverage of the expenditures involved in the conversion of the 1979 edition of The Norwegian Statute Book to a machine readable medium.

7. Lovdata shall take over the activities which since 1979, have been carried out at the data office of the Norwegian Statute Book Foundation (the former Lovdata). The creating parties presuppose that the daily manager of the Data Office, Mr. Trygve Harvold, will be appointed by the Board as daily manager of Lovdata.

The salaries of Mr. Harvold and those employed by him to carry out the work of making The Norwegian Statute Book machine readable are, as up to now, to be paid by the Norwegian Statute Book Foundation until July 1 1981. This also applies to the rent and other expenses for clerical work etc.

As of July 1 1981 the Lovdata Foundation shall assume the economic responsibility for salaries and office expenses.

8. The intention is that the work of making the 1979 edition of The Norwegian Statute Book machine readable shall in the main be completed during June 1981. The expenses accruing for this work after July 1 1981 will be invoiced by Lovdata to the Norwegian Statute Book Foundation pursuant to a special agreement to be concluded between Lovdata and the Norwegian Statute Book Foundation.

9. The Ministry of Justice shall see to it that the Ministry of Consumer Affairs and Government Administration, the Norwegian Bar Association and the Association of Norwegian Judges are each invited to appoint a board member together with a deputy. The intention is that the board shall commence its functions by May 15 1981.

Oslo, April 6 1981

For the Ministry of Justice:

Leif Eldring (sign.)

Hjalmar Austbø (sign.)

For the Norwegian Statute Book Foundation:

Knut S. Selmer (sign.)

Sjur Brækhus (sign.)

Magnus Aarbakke (sign.)

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