Re: Briefs On Westlaw/Lexis

Well, it's a legal question and you're surrounded by lawyers, so there's little likelihood of a "final answer" before we hear from the Supreme Court, but my own view is that Westlaw provides electronic access to public records. We used to send paralegals to the courthouse to copy the file. Now we send Westlaw. I realize there are differences, but if you sent your paralegal to the courthouse, you'd still have to pay a photocopy fee for a copy of your own brief. And if the case is in federal court, you can get access to case files from most of them through the CM/ECF (Case Management--Electronic Case Files) project. Assuming that the public has a right to inspect and copy court files, I can't see an infringement claim based on Westlaw providing that service for a fee.

Still, I suspect they would remove your brief if you registered the copyright and made a demand under the DMCA take-down provisions because they would want to be able to fall back on the safe harbor for interactive service providers if push came to shove.

John Noble

At 3:29 PM -0400 8/18/05, Nick Zales wrote:
>Sorry if I missed it, was there any "final answer" to the copyright
>question on Westlaw selling online access to lawyers' briefs filed
>in appeals and the like? I went to look at one of mine the other day
>and was denied access unless I pay more. No thanks. Is Lexis doing
>this too? If so, how are they getting away with it? Thanks all!
>
>Nick Zales
>Zales Law Office
>Milwaukee, WI
>
>
>
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Received on Fri Aug 19 2005 - 00:40:51 GMT