Re: West loses major copyright decision

From: <ArborLaw[_at_]aol.com>
Date: Fri, 30 May 1997 14:50:41 -0400 (EDT)

On 5/30/97, 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?

I really don't think they will abandon the market, particularly not with such a spectacular lead-time advantage. The value added in the form of editorial materials, headnotes, and now the ability to do hyperlinked context-sensitive CD-ROM versions integrating public domain and editorial content give sufficient incentive, also the value-added "insta-cite" type services available through the online case research services. But the big ones will have to become leaner to compete with the no-value-added publications, and that will bring the price down and cause some fallout at those companies.

Unlike more ephemeral publications (news and lifestyle magazines etc), the need to cite a case from 1888 will always be around, so these works will never lose value.

Carol Shepherd
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==--====-==-=-=-==--=--====--=-=-=-====---===-=-=-====---===---= Received on Fri May 30 1997 - 18:53:52 GMT