View source for Official Code of Georgia Annotated

{{Short description|Compendium of all laws in the U.S. state of Georgia}}
{{Multiple issues|
{{essay-like|date=May 2018}}
{{original research|date=May 2018}}
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{{Infobox book
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| name           = Official Code of Georgia Annotated
| image          = File:Govlawgacode20071 0001.jpg
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| caption        = Cover of vol. 1 (2007 ed.)
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| editor         = [[Georgia Code Revision Commission]]
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| isbn           = 978-0-327-11074-3
| oclc           = 8723145
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[[File:Volumes 38-44 of Official Code of Georgia Annotated.jpg|thumb|right|Volumes 38 to 44 of the OCGA on a shelf at a law library]]
The '''''Official Code of Georgia Annotated''''' or '''''OCGA''''' is the [[compendium]] of all [[law]]s in the [[state of Georgia]].  Like other state codes in the United States, its [[Judicial interpretation|legal interpretation]] is subject to the [[U.S. Constitution]], the [[U.S. Code]], the [[Code of Federal Regulations]], and the [[Constitution of Georgia (U.S. state)|state's constitution]]. It is to the state what the [[U.S. Code]] is to the [[federal government of the United States|federal government]].

An unusual feature of the ''OCGA'' is that, as stated in section 1-1-1, the privately prepared code annotations are officially merged into the official copy and are published under the authority of the state.  The state held that it retained sole copyright in the code and that the authorized publisher held copyright to the annotations, though the laws of the state were the combination of the code and the annotations.  Thus, the publisher would charge for reproductions of the ''OCGA'', with a portion of the fee being returned to the state as a licensing fee.  This longstanding feature goes back to the Code of 1872.  In 2018, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals held that the OCGA is not copyrightable,<ref name=":0">{{Cite court|litigants=Code Revision Commission, et al v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc.|court=11th Cir.|url=http://media.ca11.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/files/201711589.pdf}}</ref> and the U.S. Supreme Court [[Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc.|affirmed that holding]] in April 2020.

==History==
The ''OCGA'' is the descendant of the first successfully enacted attempt in any English-speaking jurisdiction at a comprehensive codification of the substance of the common law, the Code of Georgia of 1861.<ref name="Smith">{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Marion |title=First Codification of the Substantive Common Law |journal=Tulane Law Review |date=1930 |volume=4 |pages=178–189}}</ref>   The enactment of the Code predated the enactment of civil codes in 1866 in Dakota Territory and 1872 in California based on the work of New York-based law reformer [[David Dudley Field II]].<ref name="Smith" />  In 1889, Field expressly conceded that point in a written article; he credited his lack of awareness of the contemporaneous Georgia project "to the breaking out of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]."<ref name="Smith" />

Unlike the relatively race-neutral Field civil code,<ref name="Funk">{{cite journal |last1=Funk |first1=Kellen |last2=Mullen |first2=Lincoln A. |title=The Spine of American Law: Digital Text Analysis and U.S. Legal Practice |journal=[[The American Historical Review]] |date=February 2018 |volume=123 |issue=1 |pages=132-164 |doi=10.1093/ahr/123.1.132 |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/SSRN_ID4504942_code2390278.pdf?abstractid=3001377&mirid=1}} (At p. 154.)</ref> large portions of the original Code of Georgia were drafted by the pro-slavery Confederate lawyer [[Thomas Reade Rootes Cobb]], so that the Code was shot through with Cobb's strong bias in favor of slavery and white supremacy.  For example, as originally enacted, it contained a presumption that blacks were ''prima facie'' slaves until proven otherwise.<ref>Andrew P. Morriss, [https://books.google.com/books?id=vxjOEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA314 "Georgia Code (1861),"] in ''Slavery in the United States: A Social, Political, And Historical Encyclopedia'', vol. 1, ed. Junius P. Rodriguez (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2007), 314-315.</ref> After the Civil War (in which Cobb died at the [[Battle of Fredericksburg]]), the Code had to be heavily revised in 1867 to eliminate portions that were obviously incompatible with the [[Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Thirteenth Amendment]].  The Code has been further revised and reenacted many times since.

==Copyrightability==
{{main|Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc.}}
In 2013 the State of Georgia, specifically the Georgia Code Revision Commission, threatened to sue [[Carl Malamud]] for copyright infringement over the posting of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated on the website [[Public.Resource.Org]].<ref>[https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130730/01253723998/georgia-claims-its-annotated-laws-are-covered-copyright-threatens-carl-malamud-publishing-law.shtml "Georgia Claims Its Annotated Laws Are Covered by Copyright, Threatens Carl Malamud for Publishing the Law"]</ref>  In 2015, the State of Georgia filed a copyright infringement lawsuit in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia.<ref>{{Cite Pacer
| plaintiff = CRC
| defendant = Public.Resource.Org
| title = Complaint
| date = Jul 21, 2015
| case-division = 1
| case-year = 2015
| case-type = cv
| case-sequence = 02594
| case-state = ga
| case-district = nd
| doc-number = 1
| pacer-number = 218354
| access-date = Jul 25, 2017
| use-pacer = yes
| use-recap = yes
| case-title = Code Revision Commission et al. v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc.
}}</ref>  The State of Georgia claimed a copyright in the Code, and that Carl Malamud and Public.Resource.Org had violated that copyright.  Public.Resource.Org claimed that since the state has chosen to make the Official Code of Georgia Annotated the official and authoritative code of the entire state, the Code should not be subject to copyright law, and should be freely available for all citizens to read and access.  The Code also holds, in denoting the ''annotated'' code as the "official code," that authorship and copyright remains with the State and not with the publisher.

In October 2018, the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit]] held that the Official Code of Georgia, Annotated, is not copyrightable.<ref name=":0" />  The Code Revision Commission, established by the [[Georgia General Assembly]],<ref>Ga. Code Ann. § 28-9-2 (Lexis Advance through the 2019 Regular Session of the General Assembly and HB 276 and HB 444 of the 2020 Regular Session of the General Assembly).</ref> appealed this decision to the [[Supreme Court of the United States|United States Supreme Court]].  The Court heard the oral arguments on December 2, 2019.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/georgia-v-public-resource-org-inc/|title=Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org Inc.|publisher=Scotusblog|access-date=March 22, 2020}}</ref>  The case, ''[[Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, Inc.]]'', decided the question:<blockquote>Whether the [[Edict of government|government edicts]] doctrine extends to – and thus renders uncopyrightable – works that lack the force of law, such as the annotations in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/docket/docketfiles/html/public/18-1150.html|title=Docket for 18-1150|website=www.supremecourt.gov|access-date=2019-06-26}}</ref></blockquote>

In April 2020, the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the appeals court ruling by holding that the code annotations were ineligible for copyright protection.<ref>{{cite court |litigants= Georgia v. Public.Resource.org |vol=No. 18–1150 |reporter=(slip op.) |court=U.S. Sup. Ct. |date=April 27, 2020 |url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/18-1150_7m58.pdf |access-date=2020-04-27 |}}</ref>

== Titles ==
The ''OCGA'' is divided into 53 titles:
# General Provisions
# Agriculture
# Alcoholic Beverages
# Animals
# Appeal and Error
# Aviation
# Banking and Finance
# Buildings and Housing
# Civil Practice
# Commerce and Trade
# Commercial Code
# Conservation and Natural Resources
# Contracts
# Corporations, Partnerships, and Associations
# Courts
# Crimes and Offenses
# Criminal Procedure
# Debtor and Creditor
# Domestic Relations
# Education
# Elections
# Eminent Domain
# Equity
# Evidence
# Fire Protection and Safety
# Food, Drugs, and Cosmetics
# Game and Fish
# General Assembly
# Guardian and Ward
# Handicapped Persons
# Health
# Highways, Bridges, and Ferries
# Insurance
# Labor and Industrial Relations
# Law Enforcement Officers and Agencies
# Local Government
# Mental Health
# Military, Emergency Management, and Veterans Affairs
# Minors
# Motor Vehicles and Traffic
# Nuisances
# Penal Institutions
# Professions and Businesses
# Property
# Public Officers and Employees
# Public Utilities and Public Transportation
# Retirement and Pensions
# Revenue and Taxation
# Social Services
# State Government
# Torts
# Waters of the State, Ports, and Watercraft
# Wills, Trusts, and Administration of Estates

==See also==
* [[Government of Georgia (U.S. state)]]
* [[Constitution of Georgia (U.S. state)]]
* [[Law of Georgia (U.S. state)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{citation |title=Firms, Lawyers, States Want High Court to Weigh in on Annotations |date=May 30, 2019 |work=[[Bloomberglaw.com]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190530212551/https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/firms-lawyers-states-want-high-court-to-weigh-in-on-annotations |url=https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/firms-lawyers-states-want-high-court-to-weigh-in-on-annotations |archive-date=May 30, 2019 }}

==External links==
* [https://www.lexisnexis.com/hottopics/gacode/Default.asp Official Code of Georgia Annotated] from [[LexisNexis]] (Must be initially accessed from the [http://www.legis.ga.gov/ Georgia General Assembly] site under "Legislation & Laws" tab to function correctly, and may require clearing cookies.)
* [https://law.resource.org/pub/us/code/ga/ Official Code of Georgia Annotated] from [[Public.Resource.Org]]
* [https://archive.org/details/gov.ga.ocga.2018 Bulk Access to Official Code of Georgia Annotated]. (HTML, .rtf, Open Document file formats)
*[http://www.socratek.com/StateLaws.aspx?state=Georgia&code=13 Georgia State Codes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130718124120/http://www.socratek.com/StateLaws.aspx?state=Georgia&code=13 |date=2013-07-18 }} from [[Socratek]]

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[[Category:United States state legal codes|Georgia]]
[[Category:Georgia (U.S. state) law]]
[[Category:Georgia (U.S. state) statutes]]