Re: Jury Instructions & State Copyright

On 2/28/98, Bob Stock <bstock[_at_]ucla.edu> wrote:
>
> Someone in another forum asked if jury instructions for the Eleventh
> Circuit were available on the Web. In attempting to find out, I came
> across a web announcement regarding *California* jury instructions as
> follows:
>
> "JuriSearch is sorry to announce that it is no longer posting
> BAJIs. For the past several months [unfortunately, the date of
> the announcement was not included] we have been negotiating with
> the Los Angeles Superior Court regarding both the BAJIs and CALJIC.
> The Superior Court claims a copyright interest in the Instructions,
> which they have assigned to West. West has demanded that we cease
> posting the BAJIs and we have complied.
>
> It is JuriSearch's position that any writing prepared by a Los
> Angeles Superior Court standing committee is a "public writing" and
> not subject to copyright protection. We find it somewhat unusual
> that the results of the work of a standing committee of the Superior
> Court, created by judges paid by public funds, is subject to copyright
> protection. We are in the process of researching the issues and are
> considering bringing suit against the Los Angeles County Superior
> Court. We would appreciate any input from our subscribers on the
> issues involved. You may email us at jurisearch[_at_]instanet.com."
>
> http://www.jurisearch.com/BAJI.htm
>
> Considering our recent discussion in *this* forum on the
> copyrightability of judicial documents, I thought the list would enjoy
> the heads up. Inasmuch as the Copyright Act contains no proscription
> against copyright ownership by a *state* government, California seems
> to be taking commercial advantage of the possibilities.
>
> Comments?

March 3, 1998

   California might not be too unusual. Wisconsin's standard jury instructions have long been copyrighted by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin, a publicly funded university. In addition, the Wisconsin judicial benchbooks, a series of lengthy publications written by taxpayer-supported committees of Wisconsin judges and designed to serve as "a distillation of the law as well as the experience, practice, and thought of many outstanding Wisconsin judges and attorneys" (preface to first edition), are copyrighted by the Office of Judicial Education, an arm of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, and published and sold by the State Bar of Wisconsin, another arm of the court.

Chris Wren
cgwren[_at_]wisconsinlaw.com Received on Wed Mar 04 1998 - 01:31:16 GMT