Georgia Loses Legal Code Copyright Clash at Supreme Court

[Eugene]

Source: Bloomberg Law

April 27, 2020, 10:17 AM

Georgia lost a close U.S. Supreme Court case over the state’s 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 doesn’t extend to the annotations in Georgia’s 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 state’s lawyer warned at the Dec. 4 oral argument that a ruling against it would “blow up” not only Georgia’s 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]

1. Wow, hard to believe that was even a question!

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]

2. And a split decision at that. nt

[jimfields33]

5. Weird seeing RBG and Alito agreeing together

[PoliticAverse]

4. It wasn't about the laws themself but "annotations" published by the states

with the laws.

Annotations include background, precedence and such.

[lagomorph777]

6. If they affect administration of the law, it is not OK to paywall/firewall them.

That's morally reprehensible.

[Coventina]

8. Agreed. n/t

[Shoonra]

3. Most states sidestep this ....

... 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]

7. What in interesting vote

I agree, strongly, with the majority FWIW.

[Calista241]

9. Wow, what a split.

Roberts, Sotomayor, Kagan, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh in the majority.

Thomas, RBG, Breyer, and Alito in the dissent.