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1) Further discussion of this topic can be found at Jack Bog’s Blog, see post and comments here: “Don’t you dare post Oregon laws on the internet!”
2) See also Loaded Orygun post, here.
In response to the person who asked (in a Comment to this post – and thank you for the question – it is an excellent one!) the difference between a session law and a code, specifically between the Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS) and the Oregon Laws, I offer this. It is about as brief a description as can be made, but it is followed by suggestions for further reading.
(Keep in mind, that this is interesting stuff to law librarians and not necessarily to others, so you can always visit your local law library to see and hear and not just read about these government publications. We love this stuff: a previous Washington D.C. tour highlight for a bunch of us law librarians was a visit to the Office of Law Revision Counsel that prepares the U.S. Code (not to be confused with the session law, the U.S. Statutes at Large).
Oregon Laws: a chronological compilation of laws passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor. Published officially by Oregon in a set called, Oregon Laws.
The following represents my opinion, from my perspective as an Oregon public law librarian:
My previous posts on this subject are here and here and here.
I’ve been reading, among other things, the blog Comments about the Oregon Legislative Counsel “copyright” dispute and my reaction yesterday and still today is: we don’t have all the facts so please don’t jump to conclusions.
More stories, but, please, … don’t jump to conclusions. Only the parties to this argle-bargle (here and here) have all the facts right now. It could be there is more misunderstanding than grandstanding. We look forward to hearing more.
Rob Hyndman, linking to Slaw:
“… by Simon Fodden on April 16th, 2008
Boing Boing gives us Carl Malmud’s report that U.S. free access sites Justia and Public.Resources.Org have received take-down letters from the Oregon Legislative Counsel in connection with their publishing of Oregon’s laws. Apparently West Publishing, which has also reproduced Oregon’s laws without a licence from the state, will not receive a similar demand.
I know that Canada and Ontario claim Crown copyright in our laws but explicitly permit copying if the material is reproduced accurately and that copyright is acknowledged.” (From Slaw.)
Additional information at BoleyBlogs:
“Boing Boing points us to a bit of unfortunate business between the State of Oregon and two sites, Justia and Public.Resource.Org, that post copies of the Oregon Revised Statutes (ORS).
Though Oregon does not claim a copyright in the statutory text itself, it has long claimed a copyright over the “arrangement and subject-matter compilation…, the prefatory and explanatory notes, the leadlines and numbering for each statutory section, the tables, index and annotations,” etc.
Dropping those items, especially the numbering, leadlines and notes, would put a serious crimp in the usefulness of the ORS to these sites. It looks like Justia and Public.Resource.Org are fighting the take down request.
We’ve just started tracking this and (really) want to know more. So far I found the story at Boing Boing and the WisBlog – and the Scribd link.
“… The State of Oregon is sending out cease and desist letters to sites like Justia and Public.Resource.Org that have been posting copies of Oregon laws, known as the Oregon Revised Statutes.
We’ve sent Oregon back two letters. The first reviews the law and explains to the Legislative Counsel why their assertion of copyright over the state statutes is particularly weak, from both a common law perspective and from their own enabling legislation.
On my evening commute, while reading “Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire” by Rafe Esquith, another part of my brain was trying to piece together a germ of an idea I have for this year’s Constitution Day…. I then read this in Rafe Esquith’s book:
“To me, baseball is the perfect game. It’s the only game in which the defense holds the ball. It’s the fairest of all sports: One team cannot use the clock to prevent the other team from catching up, and even when you are winning, you have to give your opponent a chance to even the score. With its lineup and batting order, baseball is more democratic than other sports: Each player gets a turn, and a team can’t keep feeding the ball to its best players. It is a game that has moments of stillness and sudden flashes of speed. To a causal observer, not much appears to be happening during a game. But a knowledgeable fan understands the game’s intricate nuances, from the positioning of the defense to the batter’s count.” (“Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire” by Rafe Esquith, Viking Penguin, 2007, page 126. See also the Hobart Shakespeareans.)
If that’s not the 4th, 5th, and 6th Amendments rolled into a description of a beautiful and (mostly) honorable game, I don’t know what is. Maybe we should have a Constitution Team play baseball on Constitution Day ….hmmmm.
Law Technology News (registration, free, required) almost always has useful articles (also written for quick reading – that rare good online layout) – and some that are inadvertently funny (or maybe even advertently).
This latest issue, April 2008, has quite a few excellent ones, and one in particular that may be funny only to librarians, though it’s a serious topic and the advice should be heeded.
So, in my Consult a Librarian, Already! file, this terrific article by Craig Ball:
Over the next few weeks, the Washington County Law Library hopes to fill either or both of these temporary, part-time positions (the permanent position opportunity is noted below ***).
1) Library Clerk: Temporary Lib Clerk needed for 10-12 hours a week at the Washington County Law Library in downtown Hillsboro. The Lib Clerk will answer the telephone, direct people to other offices, and assist the Law Librarian with daily tasks. This job will last 6-8 weeks, with possible on-call hours after June. Hourly rate will be in the $14-16 range.
2) Library Assistant: Temporary Library Reference Assistant needed for 10-12 hours a week at the Washington County Law Library in downtown Hillsboro. The library assistant will provide circulation and basic legal reference assistance to patrons, file loose-leaf supplements, and search the Internet and legal databases. Basic knowledge of library practices is required. The job will last 8-10 weeks, with possible on-call hours after June. Hourly rate will be in the $15-17 range.
Apparently most of us city people don’t know that a cockerel is a rooster (i.e. a male chicken).
In the 4/14/08 Oregonian story, “It’s a hard life for boy chicks,” by Kate Taylor, we learn almost more than we want to know about chickens and the people who love (and hate) them:
(And even more people don’t know that “boychick” is a Yiddish term of endearment for a young boy 🙂
Oregon Legal Research Blog