Browse Issues Search Articles Submissions About the Journal Copyright Fixation Podcast Subscribe Go back to Issues WHO'S AFRAID OF THE COMMON LAW? GEORGIA V. PUBLIC.RESOURCE.ORG AND THE SUPREME COURT'S RECENT "STRAIGHTFORWARD" COPYRIGHT JURISPRUDENCE Citation: 67 J. COPYRIGHT SOC’Y, 397, (2020) Joseph P. Liu Boston College Law School Introduction In Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, the U.S. Supreme Court held that no copyright existed in statutory annotations authored by the State of Georgia and incorporated into the official Georgia state code. Although the result has much to recommend it, the Court reached it in profoundly unsatisfying fashion. In this Article, I argue that the Court’s approachfails to capture, or indeed grapple with, the compelling policy reasons for finding the annotations unprotected, and that this failure is the direct result of a fundamental misunderstanding about the judicial role in copyright cases. Specifically, the Court fails to recognize that, in many areas, the Copyright Act is not a source of definitive answers, but a delegation of authority to find the answers, and that a refusal to fully exercise this authority is not laudable deference to legislative supremacy, but an abdication of judicial responsibility. More broadly, the Court’s decision exemplifies its recent copyright jurisprudence, one characterized by appeals to legislative authority, a reluctance to engage with policy, a curious flattening of complexity, and a misguided desire to find “straightforward” rules where none exist. Full Article jocoso67sm-3 Who's Afraid of the Common Law?Download Related Content Video Nov 4, 2025 Bartz and Beyond: Year Three of AI Copyright Litigation with Implications for Authors, Publishers, and Creators Now in the third year of copyright litigation over generative AI, the stakes for creators, platforms, and the publishing world… CLE Credit AI & Copyright Copyright Litigation in Focus Creativity & Technology Collide Video Nov 12, 2025 Getting Your Arms Around the Public Domain: What to Know As Another Year's Worth of Content Becomes Available November 12 @ 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm ET Getting ready to field public domain questions in the new year?… CLE Credit AI & Copyright Creativity & Technology Collide Journal September 28, 2025 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN COPYRIGHT LAW: SELECTED ANNOTATED CASES 72 J. Copyright Soc'y 897Download Keeping Up With Copyright