Articles Posted in State Government & Legal Resources

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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.

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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.

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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.)

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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.

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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.

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It’s not always easy to find biographical information about state and local judges. Here are a few places to start, but be prepared to dig deeply:

1) OFFICIAL SOURCES

Oregon Judicial Department (OJD): for information on Oregon Supreme Court and Court of Appeals judges

Oregon Blue Book

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The online legislative history “minutes” heretofore* on the Oregon State Archives web page, courtesy of the Oregon State Legislature and the Legislative Administrative Committee, will henceforth* not be available online; just the tape logs and audio files will be online.

Anyone who researches Oregon legislative history knows about the welcome transition several years ago to online records (from microfilm) at the Oregon State Archives, a division of the Secretary of State’s office. (Another statewide office up for election this year.) So, it’s full speed ahead to the past now, not back to the future.

This is likely a budgetary decision. But we haven’t yet found out why the “minutes” were chosen for cuts rather than something else. Law librarians weren’t asked is all I know so don’t blame me; you can try these instead if you want to know why.

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It’s not enough for the Oregon House and Senate to pass a bill; the Governor needs to sign it.

Here is a link to the Governor’s legislative web page and to his Legislative Action in the 2008 Special Session web page.

(Note: Please don’t shout at the messenger. The Governor calls it a Special Session. Others, in the Legislature, call it a Supplemental Session.)

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