Re: Re: Copyright Ownership of Legal Briefs

At 2:10 PM -0500 2/10/05, Nick Zales wrote:
> I agree that what West is doing is wrong. Implied license is
>nonsense, especially if one does not know their briefs have been
>placed online. That people are willing to give up other peoples'
>rights so quickly is puzzling.

It's not that puzzling. The people whose rights you think are being taken away are the same people who are paying West to do it: Lawyers who recognize a win-win when they see one. I'll show you mine if you show me yours -- let's pay somebody to make it easy.

> That a brief is filed in a public court makes it no more a
>public record than a book in a public library.

You can't be serious. A brief filed in any state or federal court is a public record, available to the public for inspection and copying, unless it has been sealed by court order. You're a lawyer according to your signature line. Have you never gone to the courthouse to copy a file at the clerk's office? Have you never made a copy of opposing counsel's brief in support of summary judgment and mailed it to co-counsel. Did you not charge your client for your time, and .25/page for the copies you made?

The only issue here is whether a third-party (West) can charge a fee to help public citizens (lawyers and their clients) exercise their legal right to inspect and copy public records. The old Latin legal phrase that comes to mind is "slam dunk."

> A probably more true point this company is so large that
>those who would try opposing it would find themselves in the same
>shape as Hussein's army.

Maybe. My guess is that the folks at West would shrug their shoulders and delete your brief from the database if you sent them a cease and desist letter. Those lawyers who would try opposing it are like Hussein's army, but only in the sense that, while they don't much like the "enemy," they really don't see anything worth fight for and would rather go home to dinner.

>Lawyers at West making money off of other lawyers work is sick, but
>also American business at its best - get away with something wrong
>until someone makes you stop. Just ask former Enron Chair Ken Lay
>about it. Nobody ever stopped him until it was too late. Once again,
>lawyers are being ripped off and the cheerleaders are on the side of
>the bad guy. What a world.

I like lawyers. Hell, I am a lawyer. But portraying lawyers as victims is absurd. It was those lawyers on Enron's board, twiddling their thumbs and collecting their $10,000 per diems, who should have stopped Ken Lay before it was too late.

John Noble Received on Fri Feb 11 2005 - 03:20:30 GMT