Perhaps you can explain to me the connection between the use of memory
paging in MS-DOS 5.0 and the usefulness of numbering the paragraphs of
legal opinions when issued by the court to serve as a basis of citation.
Alan Sugarman
sugaraman@panix.com
On Thu, 8 Dec 1994, Richard Leiter wrote:
> Alan-
>
> Very funny. However, I wonder: is this the best criticism that can be
> made of the Wren's article? If so, I think that it should indeed
> encourage everyone of the list to read the Wren's stuff a little more
> carefully. It has obviously got some people scared enough that they can
> only ridicule it, since they can't criticize it on an intellectual
> level.
>
> It is a little discouraging to me to find that just when it
> looked like real substantive discussion of the issue was beginning to tak
> place, junk like this has to begin cropping up again. This isn't
> scholarship or intellectual - its sick. This is a serious issue. I
> encourage every one on the list to treat it as a serious issue. This kind
> of satire doesn't belong here, now.
>
> In any case, if the satire had a legitimate criticism of the Wren's
> postings, what was it?
>
> Richard Leiter
> Allen Mercer Daniel Law Library
> Howard University
>
>
> On Wed, 7 Dec 1994, Alan Sugarman wrote:
>
> > FOLLOWING IS A FORWARD OF AN "ANONYOMOUS" MESSAGE FROM "RES IPSA"
> >
> > <forward of anonymous message>
> >
> > *************************
> > To Paragraphos Or Not?
> > *************************
> >
> > Recently, the topic of para-
> >
> >
> > Page -1-
> >
> >
> >
> > graph numbering for legal citaions has been
> > discussed. So, if you are tired of the issue, too bad.
> >
> > A recent article neglected to mention a major cultural issue --
> > that paging is also the term used to contact lawyers with beepers. If we
> > give up paging, laywers will become confused. After all, Motorola never
> > used the word "paragraphing" to contact someone, and if you "paragraphed"
> > a lawyer to tell him that the judge had set the trial date and the lawyer
> > missed the trial because he stoped using paging, then, there would be
> > drastic malpractice consequences. I consulted with Motorola, and asked
> > them if they would object to start using the word "pargraphing" -- they
> > said that a billion dollar American paging industry would be at risk, but
> > would not speak on the record. I called a friend at West who confirmed
> > that they had no agreements with Motorola.
> >
> > According to the dictionary, the word "page" derives from the Latin
> > "pagina" which is in turn related to the Latin word "pangere", to
> > fasten. On the other hand, the word "paragraph" derives from the Greek
> > "paragraphos", "to write beside". Now, we all know that American law is
> > rooted in Rom-
> >
> >
> > Page -2-
> >
> > an law, and, it would be very confusing, if not un-American,
> > if we were at this late date, after centuries of using the Latin "pagina",
> > to revert to the Greek "paragraphos", when Greek law, if there was any,
> > was based upon polytheism, rather than the monotheism that is the
> > root of our culture, so, using paragraph numbers also threatens the roots
> > of our religious tradition. Indeed, the introduction of paragraph
> > numbers in the bible was actually a Hellenic intrusion which at this late
> > date we do not need to introduce in the law - it is bad enough that this
> > Hellenic perversion has led to fundamentalist rigid interpretation of
> > bibilical passages.
> >
> > Also, I called Bill Gates at Microsoft and asked about whether Microsoft
> > had received a license from West to use memory paging in MS-DOS. I
> > received a call back saying that this raised sensitive issues, but that
> > Microsoft used a different size page. Gates also told me that
> > Microsoft had filed a patent on all paragraph numbering macros and
> > programs and that the program covers the incrementing "FOR NEXT" function
> > that he had invented in Microsoft Basic, and that any program that
> > automatically inserted paragraph numbers would violate the patent. He
> > said that an exclusive license had been provided to West for this
> > technology. I called my friends at West, and they said they had no
> > immediate plans to license this to others, and noted that they had only
> > obtained this license to protect their prior patent in "INCREMENT", an
> > assembly language fucntion. They also say that they could not find the
> > agreement.
> >
> > Gates said that it was okay to use the paragraph numbering feature in Word,
> > but, that one could not use it for commercial purposes or to publish case
> > law. "If we wanted to paragraph, we would have called it "Paragraph", not
> > Word" He also mentioned some problems with Pagemaker ... and , that he
> > was buying up CD-ROM rights for the new movie the Pagekeeper that would
> > be marketed directly to the top 500 law firms, in a package deal with
> > Encarta. "After
> >
> >
> > Page -3-
> >
> >
> >
> > Leonardo, the World." [In an interesting side comment,
> > Gates remarked that Leonardo invented the helicopter, and that a special
> > provision of GATT would permit Microsoft to file a retroactive patent on
> > the helicopter!!!].
> >
> > Sources from the antitrust division secretly told me that they looked
> > into rumours of the West agreement when they investigated Microsoft, and
> > Microsoft could not find the West-Microsoft agreement either.
> >
> > As to the malpractice issue of waiver, I phoned a leading law professor
> > in ethics, J.H., who wishes to not comment officialy, but noted that
> > there could also be Rule 11 problems. He suggested that to avoid the
> > waiver problem, the really expert lawyers just avoided pin-point
> > citation to even a particular page. He recommended citing at the case
> > level only ... to preserve one's rights to change a legal theory later.
> > That way, one does not even have to read the case. Better yet would be
> > to cite to say a headnote category, because they go both ways and one
> > could preserve any issue on appeal. He said that in private discussions
> > with legal malpractice insurance companies, he had been advised that they
> > were seriously considering pulling out of providing legal malpractice
> > coverage if paragraph numbering was used in decisions. They feel that
> > most lawyers would be confused and would not be able to tell the
> > difference between an opinion and a statute, and, that the reeducating
> > process would take a generation, and they just did not want to take the
> > risk. And, for the layperson, it would be an even greater disaster, for
> > they might start reading law and point out issues that their lawyers had
> > missed because they were paragraph numbered, so this would raise the
> > spectre of clients suing the less adaptable lawyers.
> >
> > So, it is quite clear and logical that paragraph numbering opinons would
> > be an unmitigated disaster that would shake the roots of our law as we
> > know it and of our society, leading to unintended consequences and
> > perhaps even raising issues about the separation of church and state, and
> > raising technical issues that even Bill Gates cannot resolve, or would
> > resolve.
> >
> > Signed
> >
> > <anonyomous "RES IPSA PARODY" >
> >
> >
> >
> > *********************************
> > FORWARDED AS A PUBLIC SERVICE BY
> > sugarman@panix.com
> >
> >
> >
>
>
>
>
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