3 ms·

And here I am, again and again being reminded how the US can be so backwards in some issues here and there. Not making THEIR OWN LAWS in its entirety available

by bighi 10y ago

And here I am, again and again being reminded how the US can be so backwards in some issues here and there. Not making THEIR OWN LAWS in its entirety available for free for every citizen? What the hell is this?

lichform 10y ago
As far as I can tell this is the result of an interaction between laws, and not the result of the law itself. It's not as if "laws being copyright-punishable" was an intended design decision when they were written up, so it seems disingenuous to phrase it as if this were the case.
ivraatiems 10y ago
It's important to note that Georgia is one state out of fifty; most states don't do this and many have the entire body of their laws available online from the official source, not a third-party provider (And federal law certainly is as well.) What is fair to say is that the patchwork nature of America's state/federal system divide makes these kinds of gross inconsistencies happen more often than they maybe should, and it'd be fair to criticize Georgia in particular for letting/encouraging this to happen. But it's not a fair critique of the whole country, and you shouldn't add it to your mental reference of "ways the US is effed up" except to the extent that "some states do bad stuff" is already on there. Also, the authorized publisher, LexisNexis, makes the entire code available online for free here.[1] [1]http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/gacode/Default.asp http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/gacode/Default.asp
- YCode 10y ago
  Someone else mentioned the version made available to the public is not the annotated version, and apparently the annotations are considered as official parts of the law. This I think was the sticking point for the article.
- cowardlydragon 10y ago
  And Georgia sucks. Not as bad as Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, or Arkansas. But definitely in the next tier. At least it is gradually entering North Carolina territory.
  - sctb 10y ago
    We've banned this account for repeatedly posting uncivilly and unsubstantively after we've asked you to stop. We're happy to unban accounts if you email hn@ycombinator.com and we believe you'll post within the guidelines in the future.

by bighi 10y ago

lichform 10y ago

As far as I can tell this is the result of an interaction between laws, and not the result of the law itself. It's not as if "laws being copyright-punishable" was an intended design decision when they were written up, so it seems disingenuous to phrase it as if this were the case.

ivraatiems 10y ago

It's important to note that Georgia is one state out of fifty; most states don't do this and many have the entire body of their laws available online from the official source, not a third-party provider (And federal law certainly is as well.) What is fair to say is that the patchwork nature of America's state/federal system divide makes these kinds of gross inconsistencies happen more often than they maybe should, and it'd be fair to criticize Georgia in particular for letting/encouraging this to happen. But it's not a fair critique of the whole country, and you shouldn't add it to your mental reference of "ways the US is effed up" except to the extent that "some states do bad stuff" is already on there. Also, the authorized publisher, LexisNexis, makes the entire code available online for free here.[1] [1]http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/gacode/Default.asp http://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/gacode/Default.asp

YCode 10y ago
Someone else mentioned the version made available to the public is not the annotated version, and apparently the annotations are considered as official parts of the law. This I think was the sticking point for the article.
cowardlydragon 10y ago
And Georgia sucks. Not as bad as Mississippi, Alabama, West Virginia, or Arkansas. But definitely in the next tier. At least it is gradually entering North Carolina territory.
- sctb 10y ago
  We've banned this account for repeatedly posting uncivilly and unsubstantively after we've asked you to stop. We're happy to unban accounts if you email hn@ycombinator.com and we believe you'll post within the guidelines in the future.