Georgia Loses Legal Code Copyright Clash at Supreme Court
Source: Bloomberg Law
April 27, 2020, 10:17 AM
Georgia lost a close U.S. Supreme Court case over the states ability to copyright its annotated legal code, settling a dispute that both sides have argued has broad consequences for access to and cost of legal materials.
Copyright protection doesnt extend to the annotations in Georgias official annotated code, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the cross-ideological 5-4 majority on Monday, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh.
The states lawyer warned at the Dec. 4 oral argument that a ruling against it would blow up not only Georgias copyright regime but similar ones in about a third of the states with similar setups.
An array of outside interest groups also weighed in, ranging from small-firm lawyers looking to maintain access to a coalition of states looking to uphold existing business arrangements.
Read more: https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/georgia-loses-legal-code-copyright-clash-at-supreme-court
The court's opinion: 18-1150 Georgia v. Public Resource.Org, Inc.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Ignorance of the law IS an excuse if you keep the law secret.
Ridiculous and shameful that it took a SCOTUS decision to fix this.
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)jimfields33
(15,820 posts)PoliticAverse
(26,366 posts)with the laws.
Annotations include background, precedence and such.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)That's morally reprehensible.
Coventina
(27,121 posts)Shoonra
(523 posts)... by not doing the editorial blandishments (such as casenotes) themselves - using state employees to do that work on public funds - but by allowing commercial publishers - such as West, Lexis, Michie, etc. - to work up and sell their own editions. I remember at one point Michigan had two different publishers churning out its body of laws with annotations, each edition numbering the sections in different ways.
The Mouth
(3,150 posts)I agree, strongly, with the majority FWIW.
Calista241
(5,586 posts)Roberts, Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh in the majority.
Thomas, RBG, Breyer, and Alito in the dissent.