Veeck—and now our en banc majority—simply by virtue of their adoption into law, SBCCI's model codes have become "THE law"; and as THE law, all THE people (not just those who may be deemed metaphysically to have been the authors by virtue of their elected legislatures' acts of adoption) have an absolutely unfettered right to do whatever they please in the way of copying and publishing, in total disregard of the author's otherwise valid and enforceable copyright.
Admittedly, the majority's argument finds rhetorical support from the First Circuit's dicta in Building Officials & Code Admin. V. Code Technology, Inc. (BOCA), in which that court stated "[t]he citizens are the authors of the law, and therefore its owners, regardless of who actually drafts the provisions because the law derives its authority from the consent of the public, expressed through the democratic process."[1] Undoubtedly, this metaphorical concept of citizen authorship cum ownership has great symbolic, "feel-good" appeal. The majority's uncritical application of that proposition to the instant case, however, naively treats all manifestations of "THE law" in our increasingly complex society monolithically and without differentiation. The Supreme Court took no such position in Banks; in fact, Banks addresses only judicial opinions and other pronouncements of the law created ab initio by
- ↑ BOCA, 628 F.2d 730, 734 (1st Cir. 1980).
49
