{"id":6336,"date":"2016-05-18T16:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-18T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/statescoop.scpnewsgrp.com\/federal-judge-set-to-decide-legal-battle-over-online-posting-of-georgias-laws\/"},"modified":"2021-09-03T14:18:03","modified_gmt":"2021-09-03T18:18:03","slug":"federal-judge-set-to-decide-legal-battle-over-online-posting-of-georgias-laws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/statescoop.com\/federal-judge-set-to-decide-legal-battle-over-online-posting-of-georgias-laws\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal judge set to decide legal battle over online posting of Georgia’s laws"},"content":{"rendered":"

A federal judge is\u00a0set to decide a legal battle pitting a group of open government advocates against Georgia\u2019s Legislature.<\/p>\n

The General Assembly\u2019s Code Revision Commission sued Carl Malamud and his nonprofit public.resource.org last summer<\/a> after the group posted a copy of Georgia\u2019s official state code to its website.\u00a0Malamud responded with a countersuit of his own and claimed\u00a0that his online version of the code was more accessible and friendly to web developers than the state\u2019s. Both sides filed motions in federal court Tuesday, with each asking a judge for a summary judgment in their favor to put the matter to rest before it can head to a jury. <\/p>\n

The state is hoping the court will compel Malamud to pull the code off his website. While the text of Georgia\u2019s laws is free for anyone to copy, the lawmakers claim\u00a0the annotations and summaries of legal opinions\u00a0attached to the code\u00a0are creative works\u00a0protected by copyright. They\u00a0say that the\u00a0materials are the intellectual property of the legal research company LexisNexis, which contracts with the state to publish the official version of the code and creates the annotations.<\/p>\n

“It is clear,” they argue,\u00a0“that the [code] annotations are not the law.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But Malamud argues that the state can\u2019t claim copyright on its own law. In Tuesday\u2019s motion, lawyers for Public Resource wrote that the copyright claim is \u201cdubious\u201d because the code is \u201can edict of government and creating the annotations is a core legislative function.\u201d<\/p>\n

They charged that the ancillary materials lack \u201csufficient creativity\u201d to qualify for copyright, since they could only be written so many ways given their reliance on the state code itself. Additionally, Malamud\u2019s lawyers point out that while unofficial versions of the code are available online on several state websites, only the version with the annotations attached is considered the \u201cofficial\u201d law of the land that lawyers must cite.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no official code of Georgia that is not annotated,\u201d the group wrote.<\/p>\n

[Read more: Open gov advocates face obstacles when publishing state codes<\/a>]<\/em><\/p>\n

Even if the court considers the annotations protected by copyright, Malamud\u2019s legal team argues that his posting of the material could be protected as \u201cfair use,\u201d or the publishing of copyrighted works for noncommercial educational means. Specifically, the group believes it\u2019s performing a public service by making the code more freely available in a more useful format.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic Resource does not just want to save citizens a trip to the library or the cost of a LexisNexis product,\u201d the lawyers wrote. \u201cIt also wants the [code] to be free for download so that people will be able to use the Internet and programming skills to create other websites that make the [code] even more useful to Georgia\u2019s citizens and the general public. Making an official code available in bulk enables volunteers in the community to create a better web.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state pushed back against that claim, noting\u00a0the annotated code is available\u00a0on its own website\u00a0and on\u00a0an online database maintained by the University of Georgia.\u00a0Georgia residents\u00a0\u201chave never had more access to the goings-on of Georgia government, its documents and its laws,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Public Resource\u2019s] true impetus for its actions and this case is its perception of a lack of internet expertise on the part of the government at all levels and in multiple countries,\u201d the commission\u2019s lawyers wrote. \u201cPR\u2019s overall purpose may be laudable, increasing government transparency is good, but the problem arises when PR violates the copyrights of others to accomplish its purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also charge that Malamud\u2019s posting of the code will damage its business relationship with LexisNexis, undermining the group\u2019s claim of fair use. <\/p>\n

The commission’s lawyers said some volumes of the code have been copied by other users \u201cover one thousand times\u201d since Malamud published them,\u00a0which could damage LexisNexis\u2019 business model and make the low printing cost it charges the state unsustainable for the company.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At its core, the group\u2019s argument that it\u2019s publishing the codes online for the benefit of the public is \u201ca smokescreen,” the state argues.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis case is the culmination of a well-laid plan by public.resource.org to challenge in court a state\u2019s ability to own a copyright in annotations of the state\u2019s laws,\u201d the commission wrote. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile,\u00a0Public Resource believes its publishing of the code won\u2019t\u00a0cause any substantial loss in revenue for the states. \u201cMany other official state codes are available, in their entirety, on the internet, but the printed editions still sell well,\u201d the group\u2019s lawyers wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Malamud\u2019s group blasted the state\u2019s obstinance, reiterating that its intentions are noble.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly if the law is truly free and available can the state reasonably expect people and enterprises to obey the law, to know their rights under the law, and to evaluate and participate in the noble work of improving the law,\u201d the group\u2019s lawyers wrote.<\/p>\n

Maria Savio, a partner with the intellectual property law firm Gottlieb, Rackman & Reisman, told StateScoop that she\u00a0sees\u00a0those as “pie in the sky arguments” and “a waste of time and resources.” She expects that the judge will ultimately\u00a0rule in the state’s favor.<\/p>\n

The court is set to decide on the pair of motions by June 13.<\/p>\n

Contact the reporter at alex.koma@statescoop.com, and follow him on Twitter @AlexKomaSNG.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

State lawmakers and an open government group are asking a federal court to settle their dispute over the online availability of the state code.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":39356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_grayscale_images":true,"grayscale_contrast":0,"sponsored_content":false,"display_author_bio":true,"story_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4677,20648,20650],"tags":[4,12,62,174,175,190,258,941,942,13703],"people":[],"special-report":[],"authors":[],"class_list":["post-6336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state","category-digital-services","category-data-analytics","tag-tech-news","tag-state-local-news","tag-websites","tag-open-government","tag-open-data","tag-transparency","tag-legislator","tag-carl-malamud","tag-public-resource","tag-digital-services"],"yoast_head":"\nFederal 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