Page:The librarian's copyright companion, by James S. Heller, Paul Hellyer, Benjamin J. Keele, 2012.djvu/27

Chapter One. General Principles Some materials published by state or local governments—unlike works of the federal government—may be copyrighted. This means that a report published by a state department of transportation may be protected. As more and more states place more and more information on their websites, states are publicizing their perceived intellectual property rights. For example, here is what the state of Florida writes about its “MyFlorida” website:

Who are these Cocoanuts? The State of Florida claims copyright not only in its website as a compilation (discussed below), but in all of the materials in the website. That is simply incorrect. State or local governmental works such as court decisions, statutes, regulations, ordinances, and attorney general opinions—in other words, the law—may not be copyrighted.

Some words of caution: Although judicial decisions are not protected by copyright, two federal appeals courts had differing conclusions as to whether a publisher may claim copyright in a compilation of court decisions that are published as case reporters. In 1986, the U.S. Court of