May 13th, 2008
Oregon says its law is copyright
Carl Malamud at resource.org and Tim Stanley at Justia are fighting off cease and desist letters from the State of Oregon. The state is asserting a copyright interest in the state code, even though the law is by definition public domain.
After a conference call in which Oregon offered the sites a public license that acknowledges Oregon’s copyright in the organization, numbering, and “tables, index and annotations” – an acknowledgment the sites reject – Justia and Resource.org have set a June 2 deadline by which they intend to publish the code.
The state withdrew its cease and desist letter on April 30.
Malamud reported on his and Stanley’s position in a post to Boing Boing:
Particularly galling is the fact that Thomson West has also made a copy of these statutes and has done so without a commercial license, but the Legislative Counsel explicitly told Tim Stanley of Justia that they weren’t going to send cease and desist letters to West. Evidently, it is much easier to pick on the little guys.
Oregon is not unique in asserting copyright over state law, but they are definitely one of the more aggressive in this kind of FUD campaign. Justia and Public.Resource.Org have decided this is an important issue to resolve and we’re going to hold firm on this.
