{"id":2651,"date":"2020-10-27T04:14:53","date_gmt":"2020-10-27T12:14:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unicourt.com\/blog\/?p=2651"},"modified":"2022-01-06T01:54:23","modified_gmt":"2022-01-06T09:54:23","slug":"github-repo-of-official-code-of-georgia-annotated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unicourt.com\/blog\/github-repo-of-official-code-of-georgia-annotated\/","title":{"rendered":"Public Resource and UniCourt Release Free GitHub Repo of Official Code of Georgia Annotated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Improving access to public records is central to UniCourt\u2019s mission as a company and it drives our continued push to make government records, from court records, to business records, bar records, and the laws governing the way we interact with the legal system, more accessible, organized, and useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Battle for Access<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As one of the leading figures in the ongoing battle to make the law freely accessible to all, Carl Malamud, the President and Founder of Public.Resource.Org<\/a>, is a strong proponent of the sentiment espoused by Justice Stephen Breyer that \u201cIf a law isn\u2019t public, it isn\u2019t a law.\u201d Carl has been advocating for and improving access to public information and knowledge for decades, and since 2007, Public Resource has been on the forefront of making state and federal regulations openly available, free of charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, when Carl Malamud asked UniCourt to help post the .rtf files of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated (OCGA) into \u201cbeautiful HTML\u201d online for free, we were excited to support this effort and see Carl\u2019s hard fought win in Georgia v. Public Resource<\/em><\/a> be further cemented for posterity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What started as a 2015 lawsuit by the State of Georgia against Public Resource for posting the OCGA online, and an initial defeat in the Northern District of Georgia<\/a>, would eventually end in a victory for Carl and Public Resource both in the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals<\/a>, as well as a historic victory in the Supreme Court of the United States<\/a>. Thanks to Carl\u2019s tireless efforts, SCOTUS has once and for all established that \u201cno one can own the law\u201d and that states and private companies cannot copyright the law when publishing official works authored by judges and legislators.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How to Freely Access the OCGA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cToday, I am delighted to announce that we’ve taken the next step,\u201d said Carl in his recent post on Boing Boing<\/a>. \u201cWorking with my friends at UniCourt and their crack engineering team in Mangaluru, India, we’re releasing today a github repository that transforms those .rtf files into beautiful html.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to accessing the OCGA in beautiful HTML online for free, you can also access the code behind the RTF parser we created to transform the official codes from ugly .rtf files into nice-looking, accessible HTML. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Carl notes, the parser \u201cputs structure, metadata, and accessibility back to the code,\u201d with pointers to code sections now marked, tables of contents now working properly, and references to resources such as the U.S. Code, Code of Federal Regulations, and other federal and state materials now conveniently tagged. And, most importantly, all of this work is in the public domain and there are NO RIGHTS RESERVED.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are links where you can access the parser, the transformed OCGA, and more:<\/p>\n\n\n\n