State statutes: copyright vs. public access

Once upon a time, the only way to access cases, statutes, and regulations was in hardcopy at a library, or via subscription databases like Westlaw and Lexis.  Over the past decade or so, sites like Justia, the LII, and others have made these primary legal sources avalable to the public. But while federal legislative and judicial materials generally go into the public domain, the status of state materials isn't so clear.

Via the Volokh Conspiracy, it appears that Oregon has demanded that publicly accessible legal resources cease to carry the Oregon Revised Statutes, claiming a copyright for the state's Legislative Counsel Committee, not in the text of the statutes themselves, but in the arrangement, subject matter, notes, etc.  (Documents available at the OLC's site.)

The Committee notes that the statutes are freely available on the state's own site.  On the other hand, restricting the statutes in this way limits the possibilities for other vendors to provide better search engines, improved display options, and integration with other resources that would benefit public users.

Copyright is a limited monopoly intended to encourage the creation of artistic and other creative endeavors by allowing the creator to profit from it; whether the state of Oregon needs such an incentive to produce laws is, at least, an open question.  Current copyright law may well give the state the legal right to limit the distribution of its statutes in this way, but it's difficult to see the public interest in doing so.