The PCA is just a power grab that will make things worse.
McSherry 22 – Legal Director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, J.D. from Stanford University.
Corynne McSherry, “The Pro Codes Act Is a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing,” Electronic Frontier Foundation, 03-28-2022, https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/03/pro-codes-act-wolf-sheeps-clothing
Finally, there is no need for this bill, because it simply mandates that SDOs do what Public.Resource.Org is already doing. The difference is, under the bill, the SDOs would get a statutory monopoly in return, which they can use to extract royalties from anyone who wants to share the law in a different way. Which many will: currently the SDOs that make their codes available to the public online do so via clunky, disorganized websites, often inaccessible to the print-disabled, subject to onerous contractual terms. Anyone wishing to make the law accessible in a better format would suddenly find themselves either paying a rent to the SDOs or in legal jeopardy.
The PRO Codes Act is a deceptive power grab that will help giant industry associations put up tollbooths in front of huge swaths of U.S. law. Congress, and anyone who cares about public access, should refuse to be fooled by this wolf in sheep’s clothing.