Our friends Carl Malamud and Tim Stanley are again in the news:

ROWLAND: California seeks compensation for posting laws online
Kara Rowland
The Washington Times, Monday, September 15, 2008

In the latest instance of states claiming copyright over their laws, public information activist Carl Malamud posted the California Code of Regulations online at public.resource.org. According to the Press Democrat in Santa Rosa, Calif., the state government is asserting a copyright over its laws so that people will be forced to buy a digital copy for $1,556 or a print copy for $2,315. The state rakes in nearly $1 million a year from sales of its code.

“We exercise our copyright to benefit the people of California,” Linda Brown, deputy director of California’s Office of Administrative Law, told the paper earlier this month. “We are obtaining compensation for the people of California.”

. . .

Oregon relented in June following negotiations with Mr. Malamud and Mr. Stanley.

Mr. Malamud told the Press Democrat he is willing to go to court.

“If that happens, it opens the doors to innovation,” he said.