[ga] Re: [A2k] Open Access to the Law in the U.S.

["Jeffrey A. Williams" <jwkckid1@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Pranesh and all,

  Yes, slasdot's articles are normally in the lead and very intereting.
This one especially.  Interesting enough, California is ICANN's
headquarters.  Food for thought, eh?  But than again seems like
maybe California and ICANN along with Google are birds of
feather, along with the RIAA and MPAA, eh?

  But seriously, such a notion that a State can claim it's
written law is not open to free and full access by it's
citizens due to a copywrite claim by the state, which after
all ARE the people of that state, is horribly an irresponsible
claim.  Utter nonsense and not Constitutional.

Pranesh Prakash wrote:

> Dear All,
> >From /.
> http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/09/03/181251
>
> The comments, as always on Slashdot, are interesting.
>
> - Pranesh
>
> -------------
>
>  Nathan Halverson <http://www.pressdemocrat.com/> writes
> "California claims copyright to its laws, and warns people not to
> share them. And that's not sitting right with Internet gadfly, and
> open-access hero, Carl Malamud
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Malamud>. He has spent the last
> couple months scanning tens of thousands of pages containing city,
> county and state laws � think building codes, banking laws, etc.
> Malamud wants California to sue him
> <http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080903/NEWS/809030309/1350&title=Getting_access__one_document_at_a_time>,
> which is almost a given if the state wants to continue claiming
> copyright. He thinks a federal court will rule in his favor: It is
> illegal to copyright the law since people are required to know it.
> Malamud helped force the SEC to put corporate filings online in 1994,
> and did the same with the patent office. He got the Smithsonian to
> loosen its claim of copyright, CSPAN to stop forbidding people from
> sharing its videos, and most recently Oregon to quit claiming
> copyright on state laws."Malamud's talk at Google ("All the
> Government's Information"
> <http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2633159172413478267>) is also
> well worth watching.
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Regards,

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