Re: West loses major copyright decision

"Andrew Martin" <amartin[_at_]cancopy.com> wrote
>
> What I find intriguing in these discussions is that no-one seems to be
> giving any thought to whether commercial publishers will continue with
> services that, effectively, can be ripped off by competitors, who have
> invested absolutely nothing. Leaving aside any desire to beat up on West,
> any your interests really advanced if the larger law publishers decide
> to abandon what are obviously, for practitioners and academics, key
> areas of publishing?

Surely even this is not the issue. If such material is public domain - more importantly will determine whether people go to jail or not ("ignorance is no defence in the eyes of the law"), then what is a government doing handing over such material to a commercial organisation in the first place without making it freely and usefully accessible by citizens? Tough on West, they should have known that sooner or later the arguement about justice before commerce / profit would arise - whether through copyright or not.

          Mark Perkins, RRMG Librarian
          ODI Library, Portland House
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