US Supreme Court holds that US state codes and annotations thereto are not eligible for copyright protection
Charles R. Macedo, David P Goldberg · Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice · 2020
Georgia v Public.Resource.Org, Inc, 140 S Ct 1498 (US 27 April 2020) On 27 April 2020, the US Supreme Court extended the government edicts doctrine, which holds that works authored by judges in the course of their official duties are in the public domain, to similar works created by the legislatures of US states, territories and the District of Columbia. The decision clarifies that this doctrine applies even to annotated versions of legal codes, to prevent a situation where there is ‘first class’ versus ‘economy class’ access to the law. That said, this decision will not stop states and territories from charging for access to such materials. However, those states and territories will no longer be able to prevent third parties from providing free access to such materials by invoking copyright restrictions. It has long been clear under US law that the text of legal codes is not...