State agencies promulgate rules and regulations that impact our day-to-day lives such as consumer protection laws, motor vehicle registrations and banking. Georgia's regulations are published for the benefit of the public by the Georgia Secretary of State, as required by O.C.G.A. §50-13-7. Georgia has partnered with the legal research company Lawriter giving it exclusive publishing and licensing rights for digitizing, and making available online, Georgia's regulations. However, the law is not copyrightable subject matter and the State of Georgia does not own the copyright in the regulations. Because it is not the copyright owner, it cannot grant exclusive rights to publish the regulations to the exclusion of other online legal research companies. That is the position being taken by online legal research company Fastcase that received a cease and desist letter from Lawriter because Fastcase has not entered into a subscription with Lawriter for the electronic files. To read more about this controversy go to the story that we bring you this week entitled "Online Legal Publishers Squabble Over the Right to Copyright the Law."
On a related note, every lawyer is challenged by the rules of how to properly cite laws, regulations and cases. The authority on the rules of legal citations, commonly referred to as the "Bluebook," is published by the Harvard Law Review Association. The publisher has threatened legal action to stop a free and open-source alternative created by a team of New York University law students cleverly entitled "Baby Blue's Manual of Legal Citation." To read more about this dispute, see "Is Copyright an Obstacle to Properly Cited Justice?"
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
