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Friday, June 20, 2008

Oregon moves to rescind copyright claim on its laws

Cory Doctorow, Oregon folds: Legislative Counsel's Committee says Oregon's laws aren't copyrighted, Boing Boing, June 19, 2008.
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. ...

See also the post at the Justia blog and the prepared statements submitted to the committee.