Re: Copyright in California Regulations

On 02/15/99, Terry Carroll <carroll[_at_]tjc.com> wrote:
>
> I'm not looking to exempt works of state and local governments.
> It's very clear that _most_ works of non-federal government are
> subject to copyright. I'm pointing to the longstanding policy
> that statutes, public ordinances, regulations and other edicts
> of government are not subject to copyright, regardless of whether
> the government in question is the U.S. federal government, a
> state or local government, or a foreign government.
>
> The rest follows from there.

I agree with Terry that there is a public policy that edicts of state and local governments and agencies should be freely available to the anyone without charge, and are not subject to copyright. My point was that the policy is not expressly recognized in the U.S. Copyright Act, so that one has to rely on an implied exception (which is out of favor among federal judges), or on the goodwill of the government or agency involved. That makes me nervous.

Tyler T. Ochoa
Associate Professor
Whittier Law School
<tochoa[_at_]law.whittier.edu> Received on Tue Feb 16 1999 - 22:39:06 GMT