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If you want to read the official laws of the state of Georgia, it will cost you more than $1,000.
Open-records activist Carl Malamud bought a hard copy, and it cost him $1,207.02 after shipping and taxes. A copy on CD was $1,259.41. The "good" news for Georgia residents is that they'll only have to pay $385.94 to buy a printed set from LexisNexis.
Malamud thinks reading the law shouldn't cost anything. So a few years back, he scanned a copy of the state of Georgia's official laws, known as the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, or OCGA. Malamud made USB drives with two copies on them, one scanned copy and another encoded in XML format. On May 30, 2013, Malamud sent the USB drives to the Georgia speaker of the House, David Ralson, and the state's legislative counsel, as well as other prominent Georgia lawyers and policymakers.
"Access to the law is a fundamental aspect of our system of democracy, an essential element of due process, equal protection, and access to justice," said Malamud in the enclosed letter. The law, he reminded them, isn't copyrighted.
[...] Georgia lawmakers' response to Malamud's gifts was anything but peachy. "Your unlawful copying... Infringes on the exclusive copyright of the state of Georgia," read the response letter, written by the chairman of Georgia's Code Revision Commission, Josh McKoon. "Accordingly, you are hereby notified to CEASE AND DESIST ALL COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT."
[...] Now, the case has concluded with US District Judge Richard Story having published an opinion (PDF) that sides with the state of Georgia. The judge disagreed with Malamud's argument that the OCGA can't be copyrighted and also said Malamud's copying of the laws is not fair use. "The Copyright Act itself specifically lists 'annotations' in the works entitled to copyright protection," writes Story. "Defendant admits that annotations in an unofficial code would be copyrightable."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @03:24AM (3 children)
So where is the article delete button for ac's? Or should I just use a jedi mind trick?
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Saturday April 01 2017, @03:48AM (2 children)
Erroneous stories, once posted, are often corrected, but AFAIK are never deleted.
Had you looked at the queue of pending stories (/submit.pl?op=list [soylentnews.org]) and noted a problem with the submission, you could have used the "submit story" form (/submit.pl [soylentnews.org]) to tell the editors about it. You can do this anonymously, but if you make an account for yourself (a fairly painless procedure) you'll be able to see the messages that they sometimes send in response.
If you find yourself doing that often, you could offer to become an editor. You'll be expected to make an account for yourself first, I'm fairly sure.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @04:27AM (1 child)
Jedi mind trick it is then ;)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday April 01 2017, @01:28PM
The prerequisite for a jedi mind trick, or course, is becoming a jedi . . . .