The ''Colorado Revised Statutes'' (C.R.S.) are a
legal code of
Colorado
Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...
, the
codified general and permanent
statute
A statute is a law or formal written enactment of a legislature. Statutes typically declare, command or prohibit something. Statutes are distinguished from court law and unwritten law (also known as common law) in that they are the expressed wil ...
s of the
Colorado General Assembly.
Publication
The ''Colorado Revised Statutes'' are revised and published by the Revisor of Statutes of the
Colorado Office of Legislative Legal Services under the supervision of the Committee on Legal Services as required by the Colorado Constitution.
The General Assembly 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 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 rights, right to freedom of expression has been r ...
,
prior restraint prohibitions, and
due process
Due process of law is application by the state of all legal rules and principles pertaining to a case so all legal rights that are owed to a person are respected. Due process balances the power of law of the land and protects the individual p ...
. 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 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
In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, high (or final) court of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...
ruled that official annotated editions of state laws are public domain.
See also
*
Law of Colorado
* ''
United States Code
The United States Code (formally The Code of Laws of the United States of America) is the official Codification (law), codification of the general and permanent Law of the United States#Federal law, federal statutes of the United States. It ...
''
Notes
References
*
*
External links
Colorado Revised Statutesfrom
LexisNexis
LexisNexis is an American data analytics company headquartered in New York, New York. Its products are various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper searc ...
Colorado Revised Statutesfrom the
Colorado Office of Legislative Legal Services
Colorado Revised Statutesfrom
Public.Resource.Org
Official Colorado Revised Statutes Book and eBookfrom
LexisNexis
LexisNexis is an American data analytics company headquartered in New York, New York. Its products are various databases that are accessed through online portals, including portals for computer-assisted legal research (CALR), newspaper searc ...
{{Legal codes of the United States by U.S. state
Colorado law
United States state legal codes