BoleyBlogs!

Fans of open access to law (and unless your name rhymes with Bromson-Loiters or HexisBexis, who isn’t?) will be pleased with this morning’s news that Oregon is backing away from enforcing its copyright claims on key elements of the Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS).

As you may remember, back in April Oregon sent cease and desist letters to Justia and Public.Resource.Org which had been posting electronic copies of the ORS. See our post from the time for the details. As Professor Bojack illustrates, stripping out the elements in which the state was asserting copyright leads to rather unfortunate results.

However, in a hearing yesterday the Oregon Legislative Counsel Committee recommended and the Senate agreed that Oregon would no longer be enforcing its copyright on the statutes.

via BoingBoing:

Rogue archivist Carl Malamud sez,

Justia and Public.Resource.Org were invited, along with Karl Olson our counsel, to testify before the Oregon Legislative Counsel Committee. We were joined by a public panel of wikipedians and open source advocates.

The process was incredibly well organized. There was a comprehensive briefing packet prepared for the committee, the members asked lots of intelligent questions, and then Dexter Johnson the Legislative Counsel recommended to the committee that they waive assertion of copyright on their statutes. The Majority Leader placed the motion, the President of the Senate called the vote, and the vote was unanimous. This was democracy in action and was great to watch.

OPB News told the story in brief this morning (though they have not posted it online), and those in attendance have yet to post more than a brief but welcome update (thanks Tim!), but keep an eye on Public.Resource.Org’s The Oregon Question, Justia’s Law, Technology & Legal Marketing Blog, and Oregon Legal Research for the rich details. You can also read the prepared statements of Tim Stanley, Karl Olson and Carl Malamud.

For a detailed and educational analysis of the issues involved see this timely essay, Copyright, Technology, and Access to the Law: An Opinionated Primer, by New York Law School professor James Grimmelmann. [htsg]

Update: Carl Malamud of Public.Resource.Org has let us know that video of the hearings is now available online.

Sources: Legal Research Plus