Can the Law Be Copyrighted?

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2 pointsintunderflow3 comments

Sadly norms are often copyrighted and quite expensive to get a copy, even the mandated ones. I think this is highly inhibitive for the overall economy.

In Canada(Provinces) the company with the sole right to publish such materials is typically appointed by the (Lieutenant)Governor General. An unelected, bureaucratically appointed privilege that is appointed by an unelected bureaucrat...go figure!

Having been forced to spend thousands on Fire Safety codebooks every year in order to maintain a professional knowledgebase in my previous career, I feel the whole thing is a racket, especially the selling of digital versions.

One of the worst parts of the whole system is most Codes refence other Codes in their prefixes. EG: Unless otherwise stated with this document the rules from XYZ Code are to be followed. This makes for a very deep and expensive CMA rabbit hole when you are required to purchase (or subscribe to) all these publications.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen%27s_Printer

Exactly the situation in Europe too. Understandable that there was a cost to distribution in the past, but it is more difficult to justify today, especially if they are basically mandatory. Bad enough that legal systems as inaccessible worldwide as it is.

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