The state of Georgia—which for seven years has fought to allow its university system to distribute authors’ copyrighted works to students without paying royalties—is suing a California organization for publishing Georgia’s annotated code of state laws online for free in what the state contends is copyright infringement.
In a lawsuit filed July 21 in federal court in Atlanta, lawyers for the state’s Code Revision Commission have asked U.S. District Judge Mark Cohen to bar a California public records activist and his organization, Public.Interest.org, from publishing the annotated Official Code of Georgia on various websites and distributing free digital copies without financially compensating the state. The Commission on Code Revision is composed of 15 members drawn from the Georgia General Assembly and the State Bar of Georgia, and includes a Superior Court judge and a district attorney.
