Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc.

The ACLU and ACLU of Georgia filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Supreme Court asking whether protections of the Copyright Act applies to the Georgia Code.

Writing for the court, Chief  Justice John Roberts stated “it does not. Over a century ago, we recognized a limitation on copyright protection for certain government work product, rooted in the Copyright Act’s ‘authorship’ requirement. Under what has been dubbed the government edicts doctrine, officials empowered to speak with the force of law cannot be the authors of—and therefore cannot copyright—the works they create in the course of their official duties.”