Tomorrow I will be headed down to Salem with many others to testify in front of the Legislative Council Committee. A friend working hard on this issue, Pete Forsyth, has a great explanation on the current situation:
The topic: whether or not the laws that we, the people of Oregon write are in the public domain, or whether the State can prevent their republication by insisting on licensing arrangements.
You can read the rest of his post here.
This all came about a few months ago when a website that publishes state laws free of charge (not even any advertising) in a standard format was issued a take down notice from the LCC, citing a law that gives them authority to decide ownership of various works of the state government, and local governments within the state, including the Revised Statutes. A California-based nonprofit (Public Resource) is leading the advocacy counter and will be at the hearing tomorrow.
- You can read the paper trail or declaratory statements on Public Resource’s site
- You can read my written testimony
If you are an Oregonian and want to weigh in, feel free to contact members of the Committee with your thoughts, or leave comments here for me to relay tomorrow.
Thanks!
Amy, what a thrill working on this with you today — getting our point across! Thanks for your hard work.