Georgia can’t copyright its annotated code, says Supreme Court in ruling that could affect Tennessee

By |2020-05-09T13:13:54-05:00April 28, 2020|Categories: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: , , |0 Comments

The U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision on Monday ruled that non-binding legal materials created by a state legislative body cannot be copyrighted, expanding the understanding of what government works are in the public domain. In a decision delivered by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., the Supreme Court ruled that Georgia can't copyright the annotations in its official state code. At issue in Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc. was whether Georgia could copyright the annotations in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA) and prevent the nonprofit Public.Resource.Org from copying the annotated version and distributing it for free on its website. “Under the government edicts doctrine, judges — and, we [...]