On Wed, 1 Mar 1995, Schatz Paquin wrote:
> In fact, West does much more than make some "minor corrections."
> As Mr. Love acknowledges, there are "a number of value added
> contributions," such as adding parallel and alternative citations, key
> numbers, and the like. In any event, the copyright is in the selection,
> coordination and arrangement of the case reports in the compilation, not
> in the text of the judges' opinions.
Well, if there is no copyright on the text of the opinions, can I open a West Reporter, and key punch in the text of the judges opinions and use that text in a competitive product, or even put the opinions on the Internet? Seems like there have been a few lawsuits over this point, including one between Hyperlaw and West in the New York federal district court (where West just annouced a $15,000 cash prize to a federal judge.)
regarding page numbers.
>
> "[T]he copyright we recognize here is in West's arrangement, not in its
> numbering system; MDC's use of West's page numbers is problematic
> because it infringes West's copyrighted arrangement, not because the
> numbers themselves are copyrighted."
OK, can someone use the page numbers in their CD-ROM product without a license from West? Isn't that also the subject of litigation involving West, Hyperlaw and Times-Mirror in NY?
> Comprehensive or not, is there a "problem"? I might see a "problem"
> if these citations could NOT be used by judges in their opinions or
> by scholars in their law review articles. But the admission that the
> citations ARE freely used there, and the fact that anyone can quote
> what the judges write, looks to me like proof that there's NOT a
> problem.
Westlaw and LEXIS cost about $4 per minute to use, and the fact that competitors do not have access to the citations used by the courts has discouraged competition, which would provide lower prices and innovation. I'd say that these are the problems.
jamie
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