Re: West loses major copyright decision

From: Spectrum Press <specpress[_at_]earthlink.net>
Date: Sat, 31 May 1997 08:22:41 -0600

On 30 May 97, Mark Perkins <library[_at_]odi.org.uk> wrote:
>
> "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.

I will add my two cents: Like other publishers of public domain material, West will learn that the way to prosper is to get there the fastest with the mostest rather than to depend on a false ownership of something that belongs to everyone. The same is true for news gathering organizations (now being discussed in the parallel "hot news" thread.) In this age of instant replication and dissemination of information, the important agenda for commercial interests should be adding proprietary value. Everyone will benefit from that.

Dan Agin

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Spectrum Press Inc.
specpress[_at_]earthlink.net
"It's the words that make us free." Received on Sat May 31 1997 - 13:25:51 GMT