Oregon Tries Claiming Copyright Over Gov't Materials Again; TechDirt, 10/30/09

Mike Masnick, TechDirt; Oregon Tries Claiming Copyright Over Gov't Materials Again:

"You may recall last year that the state of Oregon tried to claim copyright in preventing others from republishing Oregon laws. Yes, that seems incredibly counterproductive, and eventually the state backed down. However, it looks like Oregon's Attorney General is now also claiming copyright on the Attorney General's Public Record and Public Meeting Manual. Yes. A government official claiming copyright over a document on the public record. Wonderful. Carl Malamud is trying to get the Attorney General to issue an opinion that such things will not be covered by copyright. But, again, can anyone provide any good reason why any government document should be covered by copyright?"

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20091030/1537066744.shtml

Online Rebel Publishes Millions of Dollars in U.S. Court Records for Free, Wired.com, 12/12/08

Via Wired.com, Online Rebel Publishes Millions of Dollars in U.S. Court Records for Free:

"[Carl] Malamud is a man accustomed to finding ways to provide free and easy online access to government documents...

He's since won battles freeing the nation's catalog of copyrights, Oregon's book of state laws, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark database. Now, he's after congressional-hearing videos, expensive but copyright-free building codes, and the Code of Federal Regulations, in addition to all the court filings in the PACER database."

http://www.wired.com/politics/onlinerights/news/2008/12/open_pacer