Re: West Reporter's Pagination

On Fri, 14 Feb 1997, "David F. Crosby" <DFC[_at_]lappinkusmer.com> wrote:
>
> On 02/13/97, "Joseph P. Riolo" <riolo[_at_]scranton.com> wrote:
> >
> > A while ago, I asked the question:
> > >
> > > Recently, I learned that <http://www.findlaw.com> has the Supreme
> > > Court decisions dating back to 1937 (<http://www.findlaw.com
> > > /casecode/supreme.html>). I checked their web pages and on each
> > > of them, there is a copyright notice. Here is a scenario:
> > >
> > > I go to each of the web pages that have the Supreme Court
> > > decisions and download the web page to my PC. Then, I
> > > edit each file to remove the top heading and bottom
> > > portion. And, I distribute modified files to others.
> > > I do not commit any copyright infringement.
> > >
> > > True or False?
> >
> > Two people said true with some qualifications.
> >
> > The correct answer is false (unfortunately). The answer may
> > change if Hyperlaw, Inc. prevails over West Publishing Co. Until
> > then, there is no guarantee that I will not be in trouble if I do
> > the actions described above. Also, I doubt that I could find a
> > lawyer who will say, "Go ahead. You can do it. You have my
> > blessing!"
> >
> > My apology for being so brief. (The Feist decision is not very
> > helpful because it focuses on the uncopyrightable facts that always
> > remain uncopyrightable even when they appear in copyrightable
> > compilation in spite of how much sweat and labor are spent on
> > collecting, selecting, and ordering the facts. And, the Supreme
> > Court decisions are not facts.)
>
> If I understand your question correctly, the copyrighted material in the
> reported case, from www.Findlaw.com, is the bracketed information that
> indicates the pagination for West's U.S. Reporter. In view of this,
> the analysis must be bifurcated because (and someone correct me if I'm
> wrong) there should be certain volumes (volumes published before a
> certain date - 56 years ago?) in which the copyright has expired. So you
> should be able to copy West's pagination for those cases. However, the
> more recent cases would be subject to copyright, assuming the
> pagination is protectable.
>
> Regards,
> David F. Crosby
> dcrosby[_at_]lappinkusmer.com
>

<---- End Included Message ---->

The US Reporter is published by the Reporter of Decisios of the US Supreme Court -- it is not a West publication. West publishes the Supreme Court Reporter. -- for a two - three year period after an opinion is released by the Court, the Supreme Court Reporter is the de facto citation, for which West claims copyright. ADS

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