Californian Challenging Copyright of State Legal Code
Reason Magazine’s “Hit and Run” blog featured an interesting question earlier today: can the law be copyrighted?
In California, the answer is yes. Though the entire state code is available online for free, the state charges around $1500 to download a copy of the legal statutes for personal use, and around $2300 for a printed copy. According to the news reports cited, the state makes nearly $1 million in revenue just from selling rights to possess its statutes.
One citizen from Sebastopol, CA, is trying to challenge that practice. Carl Malamud is a crusader against what he believes to be copyright abuse. His challenge is that ignorance of the law is no excuse in a court of law, and therefore all citizens should have rights to access the statutes that govern them. He posted all 38 volumes of the state code on Labor Day, and is basically just waiting for a legal challenge.
Malamud is no stranger to tussling with bureacrats over document copyrights. As Reason notes, he was responsible for getting the SEC, as well as the patent office, to publish corporate filings online. His latest fight was similar: he forced Oregon to stop exercising copyright control over its state laws.
For more on interesting legal challenges in the news, visit the Total Lawyers Articles section.
