Jamie -
Could we clarify something? Are you saying that you are NOT
advocating that the courts assume responsibility for the
collection, compilation, editing and quality control of all
federal court cases?
*************************************************************
Cindy Chick cchick@netcom.com
(213) 689-6502
*************************************************************
On Wed, 2 Nov 1994, James Love wrote:
> On Tue, 1 Nov 1994, Cindy Chick wrote:
> > I don't think this will ever top crime as the major concern of the
> > average American. There is, however, no doubt that there are publishers
> > that would like the government to collect this information for them and
> > present it to them in a marketable format.
>
> The other publishers just want an opportunity to publish court
> opinions with a legal cite without having to pay a royalty to West.
> And, of course, as far as we know, the only firms that have licenses to
> use the West cite are Mead, for LEXIS, but not for Michie, because of a
> settlement of an antitrust suit, Matthew Bender, because of a settlement
> of a lawsuit in NY, and apparently a firm that sells legal information in
> the Virgin Islands. (Please, if there are more, let us know). This
> isn't a question of handouts, it's a matter getting the right to
> redisseminate a usable version of government information without
> the permission of a private party (West). If West would abandon all
> claims that it "owns" the official text of judicial opinions and that it
> "owns" the official (and required citations) then this debate would end,
> immediately, and life would go on, with competition. LEXIS can live with
> that, why can't West?
>
> jamie
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> James Love, TAP; internet: love@tap.org
> P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036; v. 202/387-8030; f. 202/234-5176
> 12 Church Road, Ardmore, PA 19003; v. 610/658-0880; f. 610/649-4066
>
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 03/09/00 PST