(1) Copyrights of the Mississippi Code of 1972 and the notes, annotations, and indexes thereof, shall be taken by and in the name of the publishers of the compilation who shall thereafter promptly assign the same to the State of Mississippi and be owned by it.

(2) All parts of any act passed by the Mississippi Legislature, or of any code published or authorized to be published by the Joint Committee on Compilation, Revision and Publication of Legislation, including, without limitation, catchlines or frontal analyses; numbers assigned to sections, articles, chapters and titles; historical citations or source lines; editor’s notes; amendment notes; cross references; annotations; and summaries of judicial decisions and Attorney General’s opinions, shall become and remain the exclusive property of the State of Mississippi, to be used only as the joint committee may direct.

(3)

(a) If any person or entity uses any part of any act passed by the Mississippi Legislature, or any part of any code published or authorized to be published by the joint committee, in any manner other than as authorized by the committee, the person or entity shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00) for each violation, and each day upon which a violation occurs shall be deemed a separate and additional violation.

(b) If the joint committee suspects that any person or entity is violating or has violated this section, the Attorney General shall investigate the matter upon the request of the joint committee. If the Attorney General determines, after investigation, that the person or entity is violating or has violated this section, the Attorney General shall institute an action to impose a civil penalty against the person or entity, or seek injunctive relief against the person or entity to prevent further violations of this section, or both, as requested by the joint committee.

(c) Civil penalties may be recovered in a civil action brought by the Attorney General in the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi, or in the chancery court of the county of residence of the person or entity against whom the penalty is sought. If the person or entity is a nonresident of the State of Mississippi, the action shall be brought in the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi.

(d) All civil penalties recovered shall be deposited into the State General Fund.