Re: re; West page numbers and copyright in pagination

I wonder however how that case would come out today - post Feist. I seriously do not believe that there is enough originality or creativity in pagination for copyright protection today. Remember, one of the things that Feist did was to strike down the sweat of the brow defense.

> Since cases must be cited by library location (i.e,, West
> volume and page numbers), a research system that could not supply
> such information, or allow a case to be accessed by its West
> volume and page number would be must less useful -- indeed,
> almost valueless -- for legal research. Lexis solved the problem
> by paying tribute to West.
>
> Here in Connecticut, an independent company called CaseBase
> is putting Connecticut law and caselaw onto CD-ROM, and from what
> I have seen is using both West case numbers and Connecticut page
> numbers to identify cases, as must be done in proper legal
> reference style.
>
> I don't know if CaseBase is paying West for the privilege or
> just taking its chances, but my guess is that the only way that
> this situation can be resolved, and independent paper and CD-ROM
> publishers allowed to thrive will be to require West to grant a
> mandatory license in return for some small royalty, to allow
> independent publishers to cite its system.
>
> I don't think that the fact the cite is distributed
> electronically rather than on paper matters at all. Without a
> standard citation system based on standard -- which West has
> historically provided -- legal research will become unverifiable
> and be left in shambles. West is so deeply entrenched in the
> system that it is hard to see starting all over with a new one.

I wonder whether some sort of copyright misuse / antitrust defense might be effective. West is using its fairly thin copyright protection (from its pagingation - see Feist above) to maintain its monopoly on being the official cite. In particular, I think that it could be argued that West is trying to use this to make everyone continue buying its paper books (where West continues to make most of its money) despite the advent of the electronic era.

Bruce E. Hayden                 1720 South Bellaire Street
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