West-Thomson - Lexis Intervention / HyperLaw Amicus

1. On Thursday, September 12, 1996, Lexis-Nexis filed a multi-volume motion to intervene in the West-Thomson DOJ proceeding. Included in the filing are statements by law librarians Ken Svengalis and Mary Brandt Jensen. There is a short article in today's Wall Street Journal. Gary Reback is quoted as describing the DOJ settlement as "policy by press release." A WEB version is not available at the moment.
2. HyperLaw also on Thursday filed a motion to participate as amicus curiae in opposing entry of the proposed final judgment. HyperLaw's position is that unless meaningful relief is provided, such as divestiture of Lawyers Cooperative and a workable License Agreement that also covers the copying of text, then the DOJ should just withdraw the complaint. HyperLaw previously complained about the misleading DOJ press hype, and concurs with Reback's sound bite. HyperLaw also is asking the court, if it permits Lexis-Nexis to intervene, to require West and Lexis Nexis to make their 1988 settlement agreement license public. HyperLaw emphasized to the Court that access to archives of the text of court opinions was not a concern of Lexis. Copies of the motion were mailed to the parties -- but, if any party cannot wait until Monday, try HyperLaw's Web site, http://www.hyperlaw.com.
3. DOJ is still stonewalling requests to provide copies of the Tunney Act comment letters filed September 3 -- we have spoken to three reporters from different newspapers who have been told that the comment letters need to be "compiled." One non-reporter who asked for the filings was told to file a FOIA request. If DOJ is taking ten days to compile these comments, we hope someone is reading them. DOJ must file with the court its response to these comment letters by 4:00 PM, September 23, 1996 and the response will be published in the Federal Register. A hearing has been scheduled for 10:00 AM September 30, 1996 before Judge Charles R. Richey, United States District Judge, District of Columbia.
4. Incidentally, Judge Richey was the author of Manual On Employment Discrimination And Civil Rights Actions -- ISBN 1-55834-010-6. The Manual was first published in 1985 by Kluwer. Subsequently, Kluwer "sold" this title to Michie. We obtained in 1990 a copy from Michie which came in a ring binder with Michie's name on the outside, but the inside contents referred only to Kluwer. I still remember arguing with the Michie sales rep, insisting that Kluwer had told me that Michie was indeed the publisher of the book -- and eventully, the sales rep located the book. Do any librarians know what happened to this divested product? We never got an update notice from Michie, so, I always assumed it was taken out of print.

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:: Alan D. Sugarman       Federal Appeals on Disc tm CD-ROM  ::

:: President              Opinions of US Courts of Appeals   ::

::                        1993 to Date - All Circuits        :: 

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:: sugarman[_at_]hyperlaw.com   212-787-2812   212-496-4138(fax)  ::

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