Page:Veeck v Southern Building Code Congress Intl.pdf/8

 copyright. Modern decisions have followed suit. Significantly, the 1976 Copyright Act specifically denies protection to federal statutes and regulations. 17 U.S.C. § 105. Given the state law foundation of Banks and its progeny, there is no reason to believe that state or local laws are copyrightable.See generally L. Ray Patterson & Craig Joyce, Monopolizing the Law: The Scope of Copyright Protection for Law Reports and Statutory Compilations, 36 U.C.L.A. L. REV. 719, 751-58 (1989); 1 § 5.06 [c] at 5-92 (2000) ("state statutes, no less than federal statutes, are regarded as being in the public domain"); 1  351, 357 (1994).

As governing law, pursuant to Banks, the building codes of Anna and Savoy, Texas cannot be copyrighted.

SBCCI and its numerous amici must limit or circumvent the Banks line of cases in order to prevail. Initially, SBCCI