Edict of government
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Edict of government is a technical term associated with the
United States Copyright Office The United States Copyright Office (USCO), a part of the Library of Congress, is a United States government body that maintains records of copyright registration, including a copyright catalog. It is used by copyright title searchers who are ...
's guidelines and practices that comprehensively includes laws (in a wide sense of that term), which advises that such submissions will neither be accepted nor processed for
copyright 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, education ...
registration. It is based on the principle of
public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to solve or address relevant and real-world problems, guided by a conception and often implemented by programs. Public p ...
that citizens must have unrestrained access to the laws that govern them. Similar provisions occur in most, but not all, systems of copyright law; the main exceptions are in those copyright laws which have developed from
English law English law is the common law legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly criminal law and civil law, each branch having its own courts and procedures. Principal elements of English law Although the common law has, historically, be ...
, under which the copyright in laws rests with
the Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...
or the government. The concept of an "edict of government" is distinct from that of a
work of the United States government A work of the United States government, is defined by the United States copyright law, as "a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person's official duties." "A 'work of the United States Governmen ...
, although a given work may fall into both categories (e.g., an
act of Congress An Act of Congress is a statute enacted by the United States Congress. Acts may apply only to individual entities (called Public and private bills, private laws), or to the general public (Public and private bills, public laws). For a Bill (law) ...
). The impossibility of enforcing copyright over edicts of government arises from
common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...
, starting with the case of ''
Wheaton v. Peters ''Wheaton v. Peters'', 33 U.S. (8 Pet.) 591 (1834), was the first United States Supreme Court ruling on copyright. The case upheld the power of Congress to make a grant of copyright protection subject to conditions and rejected the doctrine of a co ...
'' (1834), while the ineligibility of U.S. government works for copyright has its basis in
statute law Statutory law or statute law is written law passed by a body of legislature. This is opposed to Oral law, oral or customary law; or regulatory law promulgated by the Executive (government), executive or common law of the judiciary. Statutes may or ...
, starting with the
Printing Act of 1895 The Printing Act of 1895,Ch. 23, "An Act Providing for the public printing and binding and the distribution of public documents," was a law designed to centralize in the United States Government Printing Office the printing, binding, and distributi ...
.. In the UK, the right of the government to prevent printing of the law was established by at least 1820, and formalized by the
Copyright Act 1911 The Copyright Act 1911, also known as the Imperial Copyright Act of 1911, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (UK) which received Royal Assent on 16 December 1911. The act established copyright law in the UK and the British Empir ...
.


Definition

A definition of an edict of government is given by the
United States Copyright Office The United States Copyright Office (USCO), a part of the Library of Congress, is a United States government body that maintains records of copyright registration, including a copyright catalog. It is used by copyright title searchers who are ...
:


Basis in public policy

The idea that edicts of government cannot be copyrighted in the United States dates to the decision of the
Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
in ''
Wheaton v. Peters ''Wheaton v. Peters'', 33 U.S. (8 Pet.) 591 (1834), was the first United States Supreme Court ruling on copyright. The case upheld the power of Congress to make a grant of copyright protection subject to conditions and rejected the doctrine of a co ...
'', . That case concerned the question of copyright in the official reports of cases before the Supreme Court itself, and is best known for refusing the idea of a
common law copyright Common law copyright is the legal doctrine that grants copyright protection based on common law of various jurisdictions, rather than through protection of statutory law. In part, it is based on the contention that copyright is a natural right an ...
in published works; however, the last sentence of the opinion of the court reads "It may be proper to remark that the court are unanimously of opinion, that no reporter has or can have any copyright in the written opinions delivered by this court; and that the judges thereof cannot confer on any reporter any such right." In the same case it was argued – and accepted by the Court – that "it would be absurd, for a legislature to claim the copyright; and no one else can do it, for they are the authors, and cause them to be published without copyright … Statutes were never copyrighted." Further, "it is the bounden duty of government to promulgate its statutes in print". " l countries ... subject to the sovereignty of the laws" hold the promulgation of the laws, from whatever source, "as essential as their existence." "If either statutes or decisions could be made private property, it would be in the power of an individual to shut out the light by which we guide our actions." (''
Wheaton v. Peters ''Wheaton v. Peters'', 33 U.S. (8 Pet.) 591 (1834), was the first United States Supreme Court ruling on copyright. The case upheld the power of Congress to make a grant of copyright protection subject to conditions and rejected the doctrine of a co ...
'', 33 US (8 Pet) 591, 668 (1834)) This doctrine was developed in a number of cases through the nineteenth century, particularly with regards to the opinions of State courts. Several States attempted to sell the exclusive right to report court proceedings to fund the publication of law reports, but these attempts were struck down by the federal courts. One such case was '' Banks & Bros. v. West Publishing Co.'', 27 F. 50 (C.C.D. Minn. 1886), concerning the right to report opinions of the
Iowa Supreme Court The Iowa Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Iowa. The Court is composed of a Chief Justice and six Associate Justices. The Court holds its regular sessions in Des Moines in the Iowa Judicial Branch Building located at 1111 E ...
in the face of an Iowa statute granting exclusive rights to the plaintiff. In finding in favor of the defendant, the circuit court opined: The Supreme Court confirmed such opinions in ''
Banks v. Manchester ''Banks v. Manchester'', 128 U.S. 244 (1888), was a United States Supreme Court ruling dealing with copyright. In 1882, to facilitate the printing of records of the Supreme Court of Ohio, the state of Ohio passed a resolution to establish a copyri ...
'', , concerning reports of the
Supreme Court of Ohio The Ohio Supreme Court, Officially known as The Supreme Court of the State of Ohio is the highest court in the U.S. state of Ohio, with final authority over interpretations of Ohio law and the Ohio Constitution. The court has seven members, a ...
, and in '' Callaghan v. Myers'', , concerning reports of the
Supreme Court of Illinois The Supreme Court of Illinois is the state supreme court, the highest court of the State of Illinois. The court's authority is granted in Article VI of the current Illinois Constitution, which provides for seven justices elected from the five ap ...
. Similar cases have disbarred the pretended copyright of State constitutions and statutes: ''Davidson v. Wheelock'', 27 F. 61 (C.C.D.Minn. 1866), concerning the constitution and statutes of
Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
; ''Howell v. Miller'', 91 F. 129 (6th Cir. 1898), concerning the statutes of
Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
; and more recently in ''State of Georgia v. The Harrison Company'', 548 F. Supp. 110 (N.D.Ga. 1982), concerning the statutes of
Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...
. In ''Building Officials & Code Adm. v. Code Technology, Inc.'', 628 F.2d 730 (1st Cir. 1980), the principal was applied to the Massachusetts building code. In April 2020, the Supreme Court found in ''
Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc. ''Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc.'', No. 18-1150, 590 U.S. ___ (2020), is a United States Supreme Court case regarding "whether the government edicts doctrine extends to—and thus renders uncopyrightable—works that lack the force of l ...
'' that the
Official Code of Georgia Annotated The Official Code of Georgia Annotated or OCGA is the compendium of all laws in the U.S. state of Georgia. Like other U.S. state codes, its legal interpretation is subject to the United States Constitution, the United States Code, the Code o ...
was not eligible for copyright. In a submission to the
United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...
, the U.S. Copyright Office summarized the public policy grounds as follows:


Governments adopting copyrighted works as legal standards

An interesting situation arises when a governing body adopts copyrighted works to serve as legal standards. For example, in ''
Veeck v. Southern Building Code Congress Int'l ''Veeck v. Southern Bldg. Code Congress Int'l, Inc.'', 293 F.3d 791 (5th Cir. 2002) (en banc), was a 2002 en banc 9-6 decision of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, about the scope of copycopyright protection for building cod ...
'', 293 F.3d 791 (5th Cir. 2002), the court determined that once the copyrighted model building codes of the plaintiff had been adopted into law by a municipality, its copyright protections were outweighed by the policies favoring unfettered access by members of the public to republish the laws in any manner they see fit. However, ''Veeck'' recognized a distinction between verbatim recitations of copyrighted materials in the law itself, as opposed to mere references in the law which point to copyrighted materials. For example, the 9th Circuit Court of appeals held that a law that instructs physicians to adopt copyrighted standards developed by the American Medical Association to assign codes to medical procedures does not place the copyrighted work in the public domain. ''Practice Management Info. Corp. v. American Medical Ass'n'', 121 F.3d 516 (9th Cir. 1997), opinion amended by 133 F.3d 1140 (9th Cir. 1998). These two holdings are not capable of being reconciled, despite the distinguishing facts in each case, since it is apparent that even when a law requires compliance with a copyrighted standard by mere reference, it is no less "the law". The ''Colorado Revised Statutes'' (C.R.S.) are the codified statutory
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 ...
. 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 ses ...
has claimed copyright protection 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 ha ...
began its own distribution, challenging the copyright claim was an impermissible copyright of the public domain and was unconstitutional as a violation of
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 pers ...
,
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 ...
, and
prior restraint Prior restraint (also referred to as prior censorship or pre-publication censorship) is censorship imposed, usually by a government or institution, on expression, that prohibits particular instances of expression. It is in contrast to censorship ...
prohibitions. West settled with the state after the law was changed in 1990 to allow access to the legislative database for a very large fee. , the statutory database can be purchased with the annotations or editorial notes for $6,000 per year, or for $2,000 per year without the annotations or editorial notes. However, the requirement to purchase the database was eliminated in April, 2016. The only requirement is to file a request for the database and explaining which parts that the user wants. Use of the ''
Bluebook ''The Bluebook: A Uniform System of Citation'' is a style guide that prescribes the most widely used legal citation system in the United States. It is taught and used at a majority of U.S. law schools and is also used in a majority of federal ...
'', a
style guide A style guide or manual of style is a set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of documents. It is often called a style sheet, although that term also has multiple other meanings. The standards can be applied either for gene ...
for
legal citation Legal citation is the practice of crediting and referring to authoritative documents and sources. The most common sources of authority cited are court decisions (cases), statutes, regulations, government documents, treaties, and scholarly writin ...
s, is mandated by many U.S. federal courts. Its publisher, the
Harvard Law Review The ''Harvard Law Review'' is a law review published by an independent student group at Harvard Law School. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the ''Harvard Law Review''s 2015 impact factor of 4.979 placed the journal first out of 143 ...
, has asserted it to be a copyrighted work due to its inclusion of "carefully curated examples, explanations and other textual materials".
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
professor Christopher Jon Sprigman is a notable critic of this position; he has argued that the ''Bluebook'' was effectively public domain as an edict of government due to its adoption. After discovering that the copyright of the 10th edition (published 1958) had not been renewed, and that this edition was nearly identical to the most recent release, Sprigman started the
Baby Blue Baby blue is a tint of azure, one of the pastel colors. The first recorded use of ''baby blue'' as a color name in English was in 1892. Variations of baby blue Beau blue Beau blue is a light tone of baby blue. "Beau" means "beautiful" in F ...
project to create a public domain substitute to the Bluebook that was adapted from the text of the 1958 edition.


Royal prerogative under English law

The position under English law is radically different from that developed by the United States courts. As documented by
Chitty The Chitty, also known as the Chetty or Chetti Melaka, are a distinctive group of Tamil people found mainly and originally in Melaka, Malaysia, and in Singapore where they migrated to in the 18th and 19th centuries from Melaka, who are also kn ...
in his 1820 ''
Treatise on the Law of the Prerogatives of the Crown ''A Treatise on the Law of the Prerogatives of the Crown'' (full title: ''A Treatise on the Law of the Prerogatives of the Crown; and the Relative Duties and Rights of the Subject'') is an 1820 legal text by Joseph Chitty. The text provides the mo ...
'', the monarch is considered to have a monopoly on the publication of laws: The prerogative was placed on a statutory footing with the
Copyright Act 1911 The Copyright Act 1911, also known as the Imperial Copyright Act of 1911, was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (UK) which received Royal Assent on 16 December 1911. The act established copyright law in the UK and the British Empir ...
, which instituted the system of Crown copyright for work "prepared or published by or under the direction or control of His Majesty or any Government department". As the 1911 Act was the basis for copyright law throughout the
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts esta ...
– not merely in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
– it has influenced the laws of the many countries that resulted after decolonization.


Copyright in government works around the world

;Australia: Section 182A of the
Copyright Act 1968 The copyright law of Australia defines the legally enforceable rights of creators of creative and artistic works under Australian law. The scope of copyright in Australia is defined in the ''Copyright Act 1968'' (as amended), which applies the ...
provides that Crown copyright (including any prerogative right or privilege of the Crown in the nature of copyright) in certain "prescribed works" is not breached by making single copies, provided that these copies are not sold for profit (that is, for a price higher than the costs of copying). "Prescribed works" include federal and State laws and regulations and the judgements and opinions of federal and State courts. ;Canada: Since 1997, the Reproduction of Federal Law Order allows the reproduction of federal laws and the judgements of
federal courts Federal court may refer to: United States * Federal judiciary of the United States ** United States district court, a particular federal court Elsewhere * Federal Court of Australia * Federal courts of Brazil * Federal Court (Canada) * Federal co ...
, noting that "it is of fundamental importance to a
democratic society Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation (" direct democracy"), or to choose gov ...
that its
law Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vario ...
be widely known and that its citizens have unimpeded access to that law". The Order requires
due diligence Due diligence is the investigation or exercise of care that a reasonable business or person is normally expected to take before entering into an agreement or contract with another party or an act with a certain standard of care. It can be a l ...
to be exercised in ensuring the accuracy of the materials reproduced; the reproduction cannot be represented as an official version. ;New Zealand: Since 2001, a wide range of edicts of government have been exempted from Crown copyright in New Zealand by section 27 of the
Copyright Act 1994 The Copyright Act 1994 is an Act of Parliament passed in New Zealand that, along with its various amendments, governs copyright in New Zealand. It is administered by Intellectual Property Policy Unit of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and ...
. As well as Acts of Parliament, regulations and court judgments, the section 27 exemptions include the proceedings of Parliament (''
Hansard ''Hansard'' is the traditional name of the transcripts of parliamentary debates in Britain and many Commonwealth countries. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard (1776–1833), a London printer and publisher, who was the first official print ...
'') and the reports of Royal commissions and other inquiries. ;South Africa: South Africa formerly followed British copyright law, but the Copyright Act, 1978 introduced a provision that places "official texts of a legislative, administrative or legal nature", and official translations of such texts, in the public domain. ;United Kingdom: Acts (of the
Westminster Parliament The Parliament of the United Kingdom is the Parliamentary sovereignty in the United Kingdom, supreme Legislature, legislative body of the United Kingdom, the Crown Dependencies and the British Overseas Territories. It meets at the Palace of We ...
and of the devolved Parliaments and Assemblies) and Measures (of the
General Synod of the Church of England The General Synod is the tricameral deliberative and legislative organ of the Church of England. The synod was instituted in 1970, replacing the Church Assembly, and is the culmination of a process of rediscovering self-government for the Church ...
and of the
Welsh Assembly The Senedd (; ), officially known as the Welsh Parliament in English and () in Welsh, is the devolved, unicameral legislature of Wales. A democratically elected body, it makes laws for Wales, agrees certain taxes and scrutinises the Welsh Gove ...
) are protected by Crown copyright under section 164 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988c 48, also known as the CDPA, is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received Royal Assent on 15 November 1988. It reformulates almost completely the statutory basis of copyright law ( ...
(CDPA); secondary legislation and court judgements are also protected by the general regime of Crown copyright (s. 163, CDPA). The policy of the UK government in licensing reproductions is described in the 1999
white paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. A white paper ...
"Future Management of Crown Copyright", which justifies the continued existence of Crown copyright "to prevent misuse and to preserve the integrity of Crown material".Paragraphs 5.1 and 7.8
Future Management of Crown Copyright
Cm. 4300, March 1999.
Primary and secondary legislation may be freely reproduced for non-commercial use: this only applies to the original versions of legislation, not to the consolidated versions published as ''Statutes in Force'' and on the
UK Statute Law Database legislation.gov.uk, formerly known as the UK Statute Law Database, is the official web-accessible database of the statute law of the United Kingdom, hosted by The National Archives. It contains all primary legislation in force since 1267 and a ...
. Commercial republishers are required to "add value" to the material, for example by collecting related legislation in a single volume. There is no general licence for republishing court judgements: the white paper is silent on the specific reasons for this omission, although it notes that there are "certain categories of Crown copyright protected material" that contain information of "a personal or confidential nature".Paragraphs 6.1 and 6.2
Future Management of Crown Copyright
Cm. 4300, March 1999.


See also

* Accessibility of United States state law


References

{{reflist, 30em United States copyright law
Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a ...