• OT Georgia v. Public.Resource.org

    From jack@johnrstobo@gmail.com to alt.tv.law-and-order on Tue Apr 28 17:39:19 2020
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.law-and-order

    Are annotations published with GeorgiarCOs laws and codes subject to copyright and therefore can go behind a paywall, or to be considered part of the public record?
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  • From theget@theget@bigmailbox.net to alt.tv.law-and-order on Wed Apr 29 18:23:01 2020
    From Newsgroup: alt.tv.law-and-order

    On Tuesday, April 28, 2020 at 8:39:20 PM UTC-4, jack wrote:
    Are annotations published with GeorgiarCOs laws and codes subject to copyright and therefore can go behind a paywall, or to be considered part of the public record?
    It looks like the link I previously posted might not be working. Maybe this one is better.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgia_v._Public.Resource.Org,_Inc.
    I'm not entirely clear if Georgia was claiming copyright on the law itself, or just on the annotations, or both, but in any case, it seems they were making the public pay to have access to it on the basis of that copyright.
    The wikipedia article has a link to the slip decision, https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-1150_7m58.pdf
    "The State of Georgia has one official coderCothe Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA). That Code includes the text of every Georgia statute currently in force, as well as a set of non-binding annotations that appear beneath each statutory provision. The annotations typically include summaries of judicial opinions construing each provision, summaries of pertinent opinions of the state attorney general, and a list of related law review articles and other reference materials. The OCGA is assembled by the Code Revision Commission, a state entity composed mostly of legislators, funded through legislative branch appropriations, and staffed by the Office of Legislative Counsel. The annotations in the current OCGA were produced by Matthew Bender & Co., Inc., a division of the LexisNexis Group, pursuant to a work-for-hire agreement with the Commission. Under the agreement, Lexis drafts the annotations under the supervision of the Commission, which specifies what the annotations must include in exacting detail. The agreement also states that any copyright in the OCGA vests in the State of Georgia, acting through the Commission. "
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