Oregon folds: Legislative Counsel's Committee says Oregon's laws aren't copyrighted

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.

Link, Link to the prepared statements submitted by Public Resource (Thanks, Carl!)

[#1 posted by HunterWare , June 20, 2008 5:06 AM]

I would have to say that a better example of democracy in action would have been for the elected officials of Oregon to have never been dumb enough to try and copyright their laws in the first place.

[#2 posted by Carlos Leyva , June 20, 2008 5:19 AM]

Sure they caved. If this thing went on much longer they were going to be embarrassed in a much more public way than the current level of ridicule.

It is amazing that it was ever asserted and that they took the fight this far.

[#3 posted by Kibble , June 20, 2008 5:51 AM]

But you know this is only temporary.

This "intellectual property" thing never goes away. It's like crabgrass. It creeps back every year. You only have to slip one year, and then it takes over. After that, it's there forever.

Signed,
Mr. Downer

[#4 posted by holtt , June 20, 2008 6:15 AM]

I would have to say that a better example of democracy in action would have been for the elected officials of Oregon to have never been dumb enough to try and copyright their laws in the first place.

The copyright goes back to 1953 actually. I wouldn't call it "dumb enough to try and copyright" more like "dumb enough to try and enforce an archaic law"

[#5 posted by Kurt , June 20, 2008 6:17 AM]

I agree with Kibble, which is why I think we really need to take the offensive position, and have the EFF or whomever start passing along *our* proposed legislation to our representatives.

[#6 posted by holtt , June 20, 2008 8:03 AM]

@Kurt

Oregon has an initiative petition system so go for it.

I still don't see this as any kind of "sign of the evils of our time" thing. It's an old law from 1953 right? Correct me if I'm wrong. This is just a matter of someone oddly deciding to enforce it and they needed a nudge to get with the times.

I mean hell my neighborhood covenant doesn't allow me to sell to "Asians" but nobody takes it seriously. There are probably millions of illegal covenants out there like that which deserve the attention of crusaders just as much as some outdated copyright issue.

[#7 posted by trr , June 20, 2008 12:23 PM]

"Oregon has an initiative petition system"

Yeah, and it has worked sooooooo well. Good luck with that.

[#8 posted by holtt , June 20, 2008 12:56 PM]

@ #7

I'm just pointing out a mechanism of revolution if that's what the "masses" want.

[#9 posted by LeavingHalfway , June 20, 2008 11:23 PM]

The masses want their plasma tvs. :)