The U.S. Supreme Court agreed Monday to hear a case that will decide whether states can copyright and therefore prevent free distribution of annotated versions of their legal codes.
The case was brought by the state of Georgia, which sued the operator of a website that provides free access to legal documents. Georgia is supported by eight other states seeking to retain copyrights over annotated versions of state statute.
The Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2018 in favor of Carl Malamud, operator of Public.Resource.org, who had purchased copies of the annotated Official Code of Georgia and published it online for free. The court found the annotated code was “intrinsically public domain material and, therefore, uncopyrightable.”
Government edicts such as judicial opinions, public ordinances and laws are not subject to copyright laws. But Georgia claims its annotated state code, which includes both the exact wording of state laws as well as summaries of legal opinions and other rulings used for analysis and interpretation, should be protected by copyright.
While Georgia’s official code is available to the public for free, the state has an agreement with LexisNexus under which the data collection company has exclusive access to sell volumes of the annotated version. Under the agreement, the company writes the annotations free of charge and sells volumes of the annotated code for $404. Georgia receives royalties from those sales.
Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia have copyrights for their annotated codes. Eight states - Arkansas, Alabama ..
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