Condo Board Of Managers Says Distributing Their Meeting Minutes Is “illegal”

So for some background I live in a condo community on Long Island in NY. There are approximately 150 units between a dozen buildings. We have a board of managers (not an HOA) that collects common charges (not HOA fees) to cover expenses such as trash disposal, electric, gas, grounds maintenance, etc.

We have one general meeting per year in mid January where the Board lets us residents know what’s going on and what they will be spending money on in the coming year. Additionally, the board holds one private meeting per month to discuss projects and received complaints. The only way for anyone outside the board to know what goes on in these meetings is to make an appointment with our property management company, go to their corporate offices 20 miles away, and sit in a room where we are allowed to view the minutes and take notes on them. They do not distribute copies of the minutes even upon request.

I’ve taken it upon myself to go to the office every few months to view the minutes and take notes out of my own interest in what’s going on. Every time I’ve gone there I have a perfectly pleasant conversation with our property manager’s secretary, she gives me the minutes, I do my thing, then leave. At no point was I made to sign an NDA, nor was I ever explicitly told in writing or in person that these minutes are confidential, private, or to otherwise not be distributed.

Last night we had our yearly general meeting. Because I feel it to be in everyone’s interest, I printed out copies of all my notes to distribute to the other residents and brought them with me. I feel it’s necessary to also say that I scrubbed any identifying information such as individual unit numbers or names. The actual minutes I’ve been reading would say individual unit numbers who were subject to disputes, violations, lawsuits, foreclosures, and evictions. I removed this opting to say “unit in XYZ building”. I also put a disclaimer at the beginning of the document saying basically “these aren’t direct transcriptions, they are the author’s notes and interpretations”.

While I was handing them out I was approached by the board president. She tells me “What you’re doing is illegal, you’re handing out people’s personal information.” I explained that I scrubbed personal info. Then she says “You’re allowed to view the minutes but only under the conditions that you aren’t distributing them.” I responded “Well I didn’t sign an NDA and no one said I couldn’t disseminate my notes.” She calls over the condo’s lawyer and explains the situation, the lawyer gives a non-answer but doesn’t explicitly tell me to stop. Then another board member (who is also a lawyer but does not represent the condo as legal counsel) tells the president that anyone who is a resident can go to the management company and get the minutes. Finally a third board member steps in and tells her to drop it. Again, no one tells me to stop so I hand out the rest of the copies of my notes.

So am I actually on trouble? Can they sue me? Or at least send me a C&D? I feel like what I’m doing is basically journalism. The strangest thing to me is there isn’t even anything especially damning in the minutes. Just a project that was not publicized but has been allocated money.