The ''Colorado Revised Statutes'' (C.R.S.) are a
legal code
A code of law, also called a law code or legal code, is a systematic collection of statutes. It is a type of legislation that purports to exhaustively cover a complete system of laws or a particular area of law as it existed at the time the cod ...
of
Colorado
Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of the ...
, the
codified general and permanent
statute
A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs the legal entities of a city, state, or country by way of consent. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. Statutes are rules made by ...
s of the
Colorado General Assembly
The Colorado General Assembly is the state legislature of the State of Colorado. It is a bicameral legislature that was created by the 1876 state constitution. Its statutes are codified in the ''Colorado Revised Statutes'' (C.R.S.). The se ...
.
Publication
The ''Colorado Revised Statutes'' are revised and published by the Revisor of Statutes of the
Colorado Office of Legislative Legal Services Legislative staffers in Colorado are employees of the state tasked with supporting the function of the Colorado General Assembly and the members who comprise that body. With very few exceptions, these personnel are non-partisan public servants. Co ...
under the supervision of the Committee on Legal Services as required by the Colorado Constitution.
The General Assembly has claimed
copyright protection
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, educatio ...
of the C.R.S. under the aegis of the Committee on Legal Services since 1970. The assertion has been called "one of the most aggressive state government uses of copyright". Beginning in 1989,
West Publishing
West (also known by its original name, West Publishing) is a business owned by Thomson Reuters that publishes legal, business, and regulatory information in print, and on electronic services such as Westlaw. Since the late 19th century, West h ...
began its own distribution, challenging the copyright claim as an impermissible copyright of the public domain and as a violation of constitutional
freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recogni ...
,
prior restraint prohibitions, and
due process
Due process of law is application by state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to the case so all legal rights that are owed to the person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual per ...
. West settled with the state after the law was changed in 1990 to allow access to the legislative database for a large fee. On March 4, 2016, the Committee on Legal Services suspended its practice of
copyright registration
The purpose of copyright registration is to place on record a verifiable account of the date and content of the work in question, so that in the event of a legal claim, or case of infringement or plagiarism, the copyright owner can produce a cop ...
of the original publications and ancillary editorial work, and also suspended the fee for the statutory database containing the official text of the statutes.
In
Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc. the supreme court ruled that official annotated editions of state laws are public domain.
See also
*
Law of Colorado
The law of Colorado consists of several levels, including constitutional, statutory, regulatory, local, and case law. The ''Colorado Revised Statutes'' form the general statutory law.
Sources
The Constitution of Colorado is the foremost source ...
* ''
United States Code
In the law of the United States, the Code of Laws of the United States of America (variously abbreviated to Code of Laws of the United States, United States Code, U.S. Code, U.S.C., or USC) is the official compilation and codification of the ...
''
Notes
References
*
*
External links
Colorado Revised Statutesfrom
LexisNexis
LexisNexis is a part of the RELX corporation that sells data analytics products and various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper search, and consumer info ...
Colorado Revised Statutesfrom the
Colorado Office of Legislative Legal Services Legislative staffers in Colorado are employees of the state tasked with supporting the function of the Colorado General Assembly and the members who comprise that body. With very few exceptions, these personnel are non-partisan public servants. Co ...
Colorado Revised Statutesfrom
Public.Resource.Org
Official Colorado Revised Statutes Book and eBookfrom
LexisNexis
LexisNexis is a part of the RELX corporation that sells data analytics products and various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper search, and consumer info ...
{{Legal codes of the United States by U.S. state
Colorado law
United States state legal codes