The state of Oregon has claimed copyright on the Oregon Revised Statutes and sent a cease and desist letter to Justia, with a threat of litigation if they were not removed or licensed. You can read more about this on the Justia Blog “Cease, Desist & Resist – Oregon’s Copyright Claim on the Oregon Revised Statutes” as well as Tim Armstrong’s post “Can States Copyright Their Statutes?” on Info/Law and William Patry’s post “Oregon goes wacka wacka huna kuna” on the The Patry Copyright Blog and Sam Bayard’s post “Oregon Claims Copyright in Its Statutes — Well, Sort Of” on the Citizen Media Law Project Blog. And there have been a additional posts on other blogs.

Carl Malamud of Public.Resource.org has put the letter Oregon wrote Justia and some replies online here. 

We are talking with Oregon early next week and will let you know how it goes. 

Onward & Peace,

Tim