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From: shaynes@research.westlaw.com (Steve Haynes)
Message-Id: <9306151609.AA05771@research.westlaw.com>
To: law-lib@ucdavis.edu
Subject: TAP-CROWN JEWELS - DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE JURIS SYSTEM
On June 8 Jamie Love posted to this list a lengthy message
regarding the Taxpayer Assets Project's interest in JURIS. In
his message Mr. Love makes several erroneous statements, and in
so doing he mischaracterizes the nature of the relationship
between West Publishing and the Department of Justice (DOJ).
West wishes to set the record straight.
Mr. Love said (in part):
> The Taxpayer Assets Project is gathering signatures for a
> letter to Attorney General Janet Reno, asking that the
> Department of Justice provide public access to JURIS, the
> federal government's online database of legal information.
...
> BARRIERS TO ACCESS
>
> The major problem with access to JURIS concern the
> opposition from West Publishing, the owner of WESTLAW, and
> Mead Data Central, the owner of LEXIS. Currently WESTLAW
> provides digital copies of legal information in a
> controversial contract which allows WESTLAW to insert
> copyrighted information into the text of government
> decisions and laws, and exercise copyright type restrictions
> on the database. Because the WESTLAW material is included
> in the database, the JURIS database is not available through
> the freedom of information act, and not available to private
> citizens.
>
> The Department of Justice is now rebidding the WESTLAW
> contract. We are urging the Department of Justice to require
> the winning contractor to provide the data in a way that
> does not bar public access to this important database.
....
Let me address the key points, as follows:
* The message said "[The West/DOJ contract] allows WESTLAW to
insert copyrighted information into the text of government
decisions and laws." This is a mischaracterization of the
relationship. During the early years of WESTLAW, DOJ
inquired of West whether the caselaw database that West was
building for WESTLAW might be licensed to the DOJ for
inclusion in DOJ's new computer-assisted legal research
system, JURIS. The caselaw concerned was the online version
of the case reports West has published for over one hundred
years. As readers of this list will recognize, for all that
time West has enhanced the public domain versions of caselaw
with numerous editorial enhancements, not the least of which
are synopses, headnotes, and alternative and parallel
citations. DOJ wished this license in order to gain access
to this enhanced text of West case reports. Thus, the
contract _cannot_ allow West to "insert copyrighted
information" -- the copyrighted information is there to
begin with.
* JURIS can not be made available to the public. The DOJ
charter precludes public access to JURIS.
* The only practical approach that DOJ could use to create a
database that was subject to FOIA access would be to
keyboard the caselaw itself. To keyboard this material
would mean that the government would incur an expense orders
of magnitude greater than the cost to license it. In
addition, the DOJ staff would be foregoing access to the
West editorial enhancements that they sought and have found
very useful.
* By inclusion of West's case reports, DOJ avails itself of a
superior product. Mr. Love would like a free ride on that
product. He can as easily argue that the public should have
access to government switchboards because of volume
discounts the government negotiates with AT&T, or to
government travel agencies in order to benefit from
government rates.
* Mr. Love implies that "broader public access" may be easily
and inexpensively achieved. This is not the case. JURIS
has very limited capacity for expansion beyond the current
users without significant additional government expense.
Finally, the system is not offered to even DOJ staff for
free. It presently "costs" DOJ attorneys approximately $70
per hour which, although less than commercial rates, is not
cheap and buys them access only to relatively limited
material.
* Stephen L. Haynes Internet: shaynes@research.westlaw.com
* Manager, WESTLAW Research MCI Mail: 221-3969
* & Development Compuserve: 76236,3547
* West Publishing Company Phone: 612/687-5770
* 610 Opperman Drive Fax: 612/687-7907
* Eagan, MN 55123
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