On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its opinion in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org Inc., with a 5-4 majority ruling that the non-binding annotations in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated were not eligible for copyright protection under the government edicts doctrine.
As the New York Times noted, the voting blocs were not the typical 5-4 ideological division: Chief Justice Roberts’s majority opinion was joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. Justice Thomas wrote one dissenting opinion, joined by Justice Alito in full and Justice Breyer in part. Justice Ginsburg authored a separate dissenting opinion, which was also joined by Justice Breyer. SCOTUSblog includes photo illustrations of vote alignment by both ideology and seniority, each demonstrating the unusual alliances in this case.
The Code Revision Commission of Georgia had contracted with LEXIS to prepare the revisions; annotations were drafted by Lexis staff as a work-for-hire. Lexis sells hard copies of the annotated code for $412, and provides a free public-access version online, subject to Terms & Conditions that "the State of Georgia reserves the right to claim and defend the copyright in any copyrightable portions of the site."
Public.Resource.Org, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to government information, posted its own scanned copy of the print OCGA online, prompting the copyright litigation that eventually reached the Court. Yesterday's decision will likely affect the other state governments that work with private publishers on their official publications and/or claim at least partial copyright protection in portions of their official legislative or regulatory codes.
Public.Resource.Org has several other government information access lawsuits pending, including a lawsuit in the D.C. Circuit related to its scans of public safety codes. These privately-produced standards are frequently "incorporated by reference" in legislative and regulatory codes, but are usually available only for a fee or through restrictive public-access versions with limits on printing/saving/downloading. In a Tweet thanking his legal team, Public.Resource.Org founder Carl Malamud noted, "What's funny is that Georgia isn't even the main show in terms of effort. That's the standards case currently in DC court." A listing of ongoing litigation (with links to dockets) is available at Public.Resource.Org.
For more about copyright law (and what it doesn't protect), check out the resources on our research guide to Intellectual Property. You'll find suggested titles from basic introduction to detailed treatises in the library's collection, as well as links to free resources like the Cornell University Library Copyright Information Center. For help with accessing resources, be sure to Ask a Librarian.
As the New York Times noted, the voting blocs were not the typical 5-4 ideological division: Chief Justice Roberts’s majority opinion was joined by Justices Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh. Justice Thomas wrote one dissenting opinion, joined by Justice Alito in full and Justice Breyer in part. Justice Ginsburg authored a separate dissenting opinion, which was also joined by Justice Breyer. SCOTUSblog includes photo illustrations of vote alignment by both ideology and seniority, each demonstrating the unusual alliances in this case.
The Code Revision Commission of Georgia had contracted with LEXIS to prepare the revisions; annotations were drafted by Lexis staff as a work-for-hire. Lexis sells hard copies of the annotated code for $412, and provides a free public-access version online, subject to Terms & Conditions that "the State of Georgia reserves the right to claim and defend the copyright in any copyrightable portions of the site."
Public.Resource.Org, a nonprofit dedicated to expanding access to government information, posted its own scanned copy of the print OCGA online, prompting the copyright litigation that eventually reached the Court. Yesterday's decision will likely affect the other state governments that work with private publishers on their official publications and/or claim at least partial copyright protection in portions of their official legislative or regulatory codes.
Public.Resource.Org has several other government information access lawsuits pending, including a lawsuit in the D.C. Circuit related to its scans of public safety codes. These privately-produced standards are frequently "incorporated by reference" in legislative and regulatory codes, but are usually available only for a fee or through restrictive public-access versions with limits on printing/saving/downloading. In a Tweet thanking his legal team, Public.Resource.Org founder Carl Malamud noted, "What's funny is that Georgia isn't even the main show in terms of effort. That's the standards case currently in DC court." A listing of ongoing litigation (with links to dockets) is available at Public.Resource.Org.
For more about copyright law (and what it doesn't protect), check out the resources on our research guide to Intellectual Property. You'll find suggested titles from basic introduction to detailed treatises in the library's collection, as well as links to free resources like the Cornell University Library Copyright Information Center. For help with accessing resources, be sure to Ask a Librarian.