On Thu, 02 Oct 1997, John Allison <allisonj[_at_]mail.utexas.edu> wrote:
>
> On 10/1/97, Alan Sugarman <sugarman[_at_]hyperlaw.com> wrote:
> >
> > Reed Elsevier seeks to file Amicus Brief -- Motion with Brief
> >
> > Reed Elsevier has filed a motion to submit an amicus brief
> > in HyperLaw v. West in support of West's claims to the
> > copyright of text of court opinions. The amicus brief notes
> > that Reed Elsevier's stock had fallen as a result of the
> > district court's May ruling in support of HyperLaw's
> > position. Reed Elsevier also quotes from the database
> > protection report of the Copyright Office.
> >
> > Reed Elsevier's latest position, supporting the
> > copyrightability of the text of court opinions is just one
> > more illustration of the phenomena of "Wexis", the
> > anticompetitive consortium between West and Lexis which
> > resulted from the 1988 secret agreements between West and
> > Mead (former owner of Lexis) which among other things
> > permitted Lexis to continue to maintain on its database
> > court opinions copied in wholesale fashion from West books.
>
> Interesting. I do not know how Lexis inputs its data, but there seem to
> be too many typos, extra spaces, etc. for Lexis to have copied directly
> from West Reporters (unless Lexis is using a very low-quality scanner,
> which I seriously doubt). This is especially true for relatively new
> opinions in Lexis. I presume you are saying that West provides the
> edited text of court opinions to Lexis well before they appear in West's
> reporters, because decisions are available in Lexis (and, of course, in
> WestLaw) quite a while before they come out in the reporters. Also,
> Lexis cases do not include West's key number system or syllabi. What
> Lexis opinions do include are West's reporter pagination, along with
> Lexis's and other pagination systems. The West pagination does not
> appear in relatively new cases, or in "unreported" cases, but only after
> the reported cases are available in the reporters. I thought that it
> was this pagination system that Lexis licensed from West.
No John, what I am saying is that back in the 70's and 80's Lexis was copying from West books in a wholesale manner in order to create its database.
Don't take my word for it. Read the complaint that West filed against (Mead) Lexis in 1988 in the USDC in Minnesota. Lexis never disputed that it did what West said. Then, when West and Lexis setteld the separate litigation, West entered into not only a citaions license with Mead, but also a license covering the text of opinons and statutes. This is all on the docket sheet. But the actual agreement was kept secret, and although the settlement had been supervised by that district court, the agreement was never actually filed on a permanent basis on the docket.
My web site has more references on this topic.
The fact is that without copying from West books, Lexis could have never been created. Now that Reed Elsevier is in the market, it does not want anyone else to be able to do what it did, copy from West books to form a competing database.
Alan
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: :: Alan D. Sugarman Federal Appeals on Disc tm CD-ROM :: :: President Opinions of US Courts of Appeals :: :: 1993 to Date - All Circuits :: :: HyperLaw, Inc. Registered Trademark :: :: P.O. Box 1176 DO NOT SHORT CIRCUIT YOUR CLIENTS :: :: New York, NY 10023 :: :: sugarman[_at_]hyperlaw.com 212-787-2812 212-496-4138(fax) :: :: :: :: http://www.hyperlaw.com :: :: :: :: /// /// /// [R] :: :: /// /// /// :: :: /// /// /// :: :: //////////////// /// :: :: //////////////// /// :: :: /// /// /// :: :: /// /// /////////// :: :: /// /// /////////// :: :: :: :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Received on Fri Oct 03 1997 - 19:32:04 GMT
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