disclaimer: my understanding of the legislative process is based entirely on Schoolhouse Rock's "I'm Just a Bill" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0 ht

disclaimer: my understanding of the legislative process is based entirely on Schoolhouse Rock's "I'm Just a Bill" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyeJ55o3El0). so a citizen's access to a particular DC statute is impossible without that citizen infringing a copyright? I wonder if circumstances such as these would constitute "fair use" (which as i understand it is a valid defense to copyright infringement). also, i'm aware that doing things that would otherwise constitute intellectual property infringement, can be justified by the "Essential Facilities" doctrine--originally an Anti-Trust safe harbor, though it's also been applied to IP. This seems to apply here.