Today, the United States Supreme Court determined that official annotations to state law are not eligible for copyright protection in the case of Georgia v. Public Resource.Org.
The following can be attributed to Meredith Rose, Policy Counsel at Public Knowledge:
“Today’s decision is a resounding victory for public access to the law. The Supreme Court has held for over a century that edicts of government cannot be locked away under copyright protection. Today the Court held that to be true even when the act of compiling and composing those government works is outsourced to a private party under a work-for-hire agreement, and the legislators cannot be considered ‘authors’ under the Copyright Act when they are performing their official duties. Citizens have a fundamental right to access the law in its entirety; copyright law cannot, and should not, stand in the way.”
You can view our amicus brief in this case for more information.
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.