[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]
CROWN JEWELS CAMPAIGN: Juris -- Legal Information
Distributed to TAP-INFO, a free Internet Distribution List
(subscription requests to listserver@essential.org)
TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
CROWN JEWELS CAMPAIGN - Juris, Legal Information
July 12, 1994
- DOJ plans to annouce new procurement for computer assisted
legal research services
- Federal government now spends more than $50 million per
year on WESTLAW and LEXIS
- Two groups write to Department of Justice (DOJ) and OMB, to
insist that the new procurement solve two critical problems
for public access to legal information.
- DOJ asked to require winning bidder to give DOJ a publicly
avaiable copy of the database of federal judicial opinions
and to develop a public domain system of citations, in
order to promote small business entry into the market for
computer assisted legal research.
The letter is addressed to Steven Colgate, the Director of the
DOJ Management Division, Anne Bingaman, the Assistant Attorney
General for Antitrust, and Steven Kelman, the head of
procurement policy for OMB. The issue is whether or not the DOJ
procurement will be written in such a way that only WESTLAW and
LEXIS can compete, or if it will be designed so that there can
be entry by new firms, including small businesses. The key
issues are whether or not the database becomes public (which
will enhance competition), and if the citation system becomes
public (which will also enhance competition).
For background information on this dispute readers are referred
to the extensive JURIS posts on tap-info in our archives at
cpsr.org, or the article by Gary Wolf ("Who Owns the Law,") in
the May issue of Wired magazine.
Any small businesses that want to bid on this contract, or any
citizen who thinks that federal procurement policy should be
used to enhance competition, rather than monopoly power, should
contact these same officials. In addition to Colgate, Bingaman,
and Kelman, you might also contact Bruce McConnell at OMB
(bruce.mcconnell@sprint.eop.com), who has responsibility for
federal policy on this issue, but who proceeding at the pace of
snail climbing the matterhorn, or White House official Thomas
Kalil (tkalil@arpa.mil), who appears to be genuinely interested
in the resolution of this issue.
The political scoop is this. Government officials know that
West Publishing exercises too much monopoly power over access to
legal information and citations, and that federal procurement is
the easiest and simplest solution (the federal government is the
most important consumer of federal legal information). But
Vance Opperman, the president of West Publishing, is a friend of
Vice President Gore, and Opperman and his father Dwight are
among the largest contributors to democrats in the country.
Doubts about Opperman's clout ended when the he was appointed to
the prestigious NII Advisory Council earlier this year, a few
weeks after DOJ was forced to terminate its JURIS computer
assisted legal research program in a dispute with West
Publishing over public access to the database.
The letter follows:
------------------------------------------
July 12, 1994
Mr. Steve Colgate
Director, Justice Management Division
Department of Justice
Washington, DC 20530
fax 202/514-1778
Ms. Anne Bingaman
Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust
Department of Justice
Washington, DC 20530
fax 202/616-2645
Mr. Steven Kelman
Administrator
Office of Federal Procurement
OMB
Washington, DC 20503
fax 202/395-3242
RE: DOJ procurement of computer assisted legal research
Dear Mr. Colgate, Ms. Bingaman and Mr. Kelman:
We understand that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is currently
finalizing its solicitation for a computer assisted legal
research contract to be used by DOJ staff and replace JURIS,
which your program shut down on an emergency basis in January,
because of a dispute with West Publishing about public access to
the database. We have been told by DOJ officials that the
solicitation will be published in Commerce Business Daily later
this month.
We believe that this solicitation is extremely important for the
following reasons:
- It will cost many millions of dollars.
- It will determine how the DOJ obtains legal research for
the foreseeable future; thus, committing the DOJ to
significant expenditures of taxpayers' monies for many
years.
- It will determine if the online computer assisted legal
research industry continues to be dominated by two high
priced large companies, or if other smaller companies are
able to enter this market, stimulating competition and
causing lower prices.
In our view, there are two key public policy issues which will
determine whether or not the DOJ will take actions that promote
competition or protect monopoly power.
1. Will the DOJ procurement require the winning firm to adopt
a system of citation, including a system of interior
pagination, that is placed in the public domain and
available to all firms who sell computer assisted legal
research products and services?
2. Will the DOJ procurement require the winning firm to place
a copy of the database in the public domain, so that any
firm can obtain a copy for the cost of replication, and
develop its own computer assisted legal research products
and services?
As you know, West Publishing now exercises monopoly power over
the copyright of interior pagination of published judicial
opinions, which stems from its dominate position as the paper
publisher of federal judicial opinions. Moreover, as a result
of spectacularly stupid or venal contracting, the U.S.
government has lost control over its own JURIS database. Now
West Publishing claims that it owns the sections of the JURIS
database which contain recent judicial opinions, and only
Westlaw and Lexis now own or control reasonably complete
electronic copies of the complete database of federal judicial
opinions.
These factors have led to a highly monopolistic market for
online computer assisted legal research, which makes it
expensive for citizens to become informed of the law, and acts
to restrain entry by new innovators in the market for computer
assisted legal research. It is essential that DOJ require the
successful bidder or bidders provide the government with full
title to the database and citation system, so that it can be
made available to the public.
We believe that these issues must be fully explored before the
solicitation is finalized. The precise wording of the
solicitation will determine the resolution of these issues, and
have enormous impact on the future of the computer assisted
legal research market.
In a meeting on October 25, 1993 Mr. Colgate promised Mr. Love
that he would have an opportunity to meet with your staff about
any long term plan for a new procurement of computer assisted
legal research services. It appears that such a meeting must
occur immediately.
We believe that these questions are very important and the DOJ
should hear and consider the opinions of other public interest
groups before finalizing the solicitation. We want to meet with
you as soon as possible to discuss this matter. We also request
that you invite to this meeting all other DOJ officials who will
approve the solicitation.
Sincerely,
James P. Love
Director, Taxpayer Assets Project
voice: 610/658-0880; Internet: love@essential.org
Eleanor J. Lewis
Director, Government Purchasing Project
voice: 202/387-8030; internet: eleanor@essential.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------
TAP-INFO is an Internet Distribution List provided by the Taxpayer
Assets Project (TAP). TAP was founded by Ralph Nader to monitor the
management of government property, including information systems and
data, government funded R&D, spectrum allocation and other government
assets. TAP-INFO reports on TAP activities relating to federal
information policy. tap-info is archived at ftp.cpsr.org;
gopher.cpsr.org and wais.cpsr.org
Subscription requests to tap-info to listserver@essential.org with
the message: subscribe tap-info your name
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Taxpayer Assets Project; P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
v. 202/387-8030; f. 202/234-5176; internet: tap@essential.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------