Puerto Rico

Copyright Status: Light green

Openness Score: -0.11

The Puerto Rico code is in a public-access portal run by Lexis-Nexis, which does not allow direct linking. To access specific parts of the code, go to the initial disclaimer page and search or navigate. Citations provided here refer to the English version of the Puerto Rico code.

What is the law?

Binding, on-point law (about)

None

Advisory sources (about)

None

Public records law (about)

Puerto Rico's earliest public records law dates from 1905, and public records provisions may be found at several places within the Puerto Rico code: § 1001 Definitions, 3 L.P.R.A. § 1001; § 1781 Right to inspect and copy public documents, 32 L.P.R.A. § 1781.

Specifics and examples (about)

Status	Applies to...	Based on?
Copyrightable by University of Puerto Rico by statute	"products manufactured, created or developed by the Agricultural Experiment Station Researchers financed with" funds from the Agriculture and Food Technology Research and Development Financing Program	§ 77 Products of the research, 5 L.P.R.A. § 77
Copyrightable by statute	Intellectual property of the Land Authority of Puerto Rico	§ 261 General rights and powers, 28 L.P.R.A. § 261
Copyrightable by statute	Intellectual property of the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust	§ 695a Creation, purposes and duties, 23 L.P.R.A. § 695a
Public domain by statute	Register of issued real estate licenses	§ 3032 Board— Powers and duties, 20 L.P.R.A. § 3032
Copyrightable by attorney general opinion	Laws of Puerto Rico Annotated [1]	1958 Op. Sec. Jus. No. 23

Additional things to consider (about)

The National Library of Puerto Rico has stated that Puerto Rico government documents are generally in the public domain. Biblioteca Nacional de Puerto Rico, Propiedad intellectual, ("Generalmente los materiales producidos por las agencias y corporaciones públicas del Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico son de dominio público.").

Puerto Rico public records law provides the right to inspect public records only to "every citizen." § 1781 Right to inspect and copy public documents, 32 L.P.R.A. § 1781. It is unclear from this language whether the statute requires Puerto Rican citizenship or U.S. citizenship. In either event, a similar citizens-only provision in the Virginia public records law was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in McBurney v. Young, 133 S. Ct. 1709, 185 L. Ed. 2d 758 (U.S. 2013).

At one place in the Puerto Rico code, a government record is referred to as "property of the Commonwealth." § 951 Historical compilation of annual events, 18 L.P.R.A. § 951.

Where else to go

American Association of Law Libraries, Survey Report: Puerto Rico, available at http://www.aallnet.org/Documents/Government-Relations/states/pr-survey.pdf.
The Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, available at http://www.icp.gobierno.pr/inicio.

Bibliography

Cases

McBurney v. Young, 133 S. Ct. 1709, 185 L. Ed. 2d 758 (U.S. 2013), available at https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2705296316682556891.

Statutes

§ 1001 Definitions, 3 L.P.R.A. § 1001.
§ 1781 Right to inspect and copy public documents, 32 L.P.R.A. § 1781.
§ 77 Products of the research, 5 L.P.R.A. § 77.
§ 261 General rights and powers, 28 L.P.R.A. § 261.
§ 695a Creation, purposes and duties, 23 L.P.R.A. § 695a.
§ 3032 Board— Powers and duties, 20 L.P.R.A. § 3032.

Attorney General Opinions

1958 Op. Sec. Jus. No. 23.

Other

Biblioteca Nacional de Puerto Rico, Propiedad intellectual, available at http://www.icp.gobierno.pr/programas/biblioteca-nacional-de-puerto-rico/21.

Footnotes

[1] Judicial opinions cannot be copyrighted. The Supreme Court in Banks v. Manchester, 128 U.S. 244, 9 S. Ct. 36, 32 L. Ed. 425 (1888) invalidated an asserted copyright by a private publisher, an Ohio citizen, for copyright in the state court reports, holding that any content written by a judge cannot be copyrighted because "[t]he whole work done by the judges constitutes the authentic exposition and interpretation of the law, which, binding every citizen, is free for publication to all, whether it is a declaration of unwritten law, or an interpretation of a constitution or a statute." See also Nash v. Lathrop, 142 Mass. 29, 35, 6 N.E. 559, 560 (1886) and Wheaton v. Peters, 33 U.S. 591, 668, 8 L. Ed. 1055 (1834). Only materials ancillary to the court opinion such as the "title-page, table of cases, head notes, statements of facts, arguments of counsel, and index" may be copyrighted. Callaghan v. Myers, 128 U.S. 617, 649, 9 S. Ct. 177, 185, 32 L. Ed. 547 (1888).