The US Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday in Georgia v. Public.Resource.org that Georgia is not entitled to copyright protection for the official annotated code of the state.
The majority opinion, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, based its reasoning on a prior holding from Banks v. Manchester (1888). In Banks, the court held that “non-binding, explanatory legal materials are not copyrightable when created by judges who possess the authority to make and interpret the law.” The court expanded this reasoning to legislative bodies since the legislature has a similar ability to make and interpret the law.
