Legal briefs, pleadings and Memoranda.

I have seen several CD-ROMs published containing legal briefs filed in court by both sides of a law suit. Usually these briefs are obtained from the court in question (after paying a small fee) and are treated as documents available to the public.

Are the briefs and other pleadings so obtained in the public domain so far as copyright law is concerned, or are the CDROM publishers infringing upon hte author's (attorney's) copyright if they have not obtained permission to republish these briefs, notwithstanding their ready availability from the court in question?

Sincerely,
Henry Manaster
<manaster[_at_]yu1.yu.edu> Received on Wed Nov 09 1994 - 05:13:10 GMT