West "answers" TAP questions

[James Love <love@tap.org>]

TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
CROWN JEWELS CAMPAIGN - Juris, Legal Information
November 2, 1994

I thought that readers of TAP-INFO would find Dorothy Molstad's "answers" 
to five TAP questions interesting (although not very informative).

   jamie


>From dmolstad@research.westlaw.com Wed Nov  2 10:27:01 1994
Date: Tue, 1 Nov 1994 09:01:40 -0600
From: Dorothy Molstad <dmolstad@research.westlaw.com>
Subject: Five Questions

From: Dorothy Molstad
To:   Jamie Love
RE:   Five Questions
DT:   October 31, 1994


Jamie, here are my responses as promised.

1.    Does West claim a copyright to its "interior"
      page numbers from published judicial decisions?

      A:  West doesn't publish judicial decisions.
          West's reports of judicial decisions, 
          including selection, arrangement and
          editorial enhancements - the cumulative
          products of thousands of West employees
          and over 100 years of development, are
          indeed copyrighted.  But West does not 
          assert copyright over page numbers in     
          and of themselves.  All kinds of people,
          including West's competitors, use West's
          citations as a matter of course.

2.    How many of the hundreds of legal publishers have
      received licenses to use the West "interior" page
      numbers?  Have any non-fortune 500 firms received
      licenses?

      A:  While the precise answer to those questions 
          is confidential business information, I can 
          tell you that every firm that has seriously
          requested and pursued a license has received
          one.

3.    The Department of Justice has an outstanding RFP
      for computer assisted legal services for 15,000 
      DOJ employees.  This RFP requires the bidders to 
      offer a comprehensive collection of federal case
      law as well as case law from all 50 states.  The
      DOJ RFP also *requires* a bluebook cite.  According
      to Professor Virginia Wise at Harvard, no one can
      meet those requirements without the West "interior"
      page numbers.  Do you agree?
   
      A:  Jamie, you know it's not appropriate for me to
          publicly discuss the DOJ RFP during the decision
          making process.  Sorry.

4.    Professor Robert Berring's study of citations only
      considered court rules for "in-state" citations to 
      case law, and ignores requirements for using West
      page numbers when citing cases from "out of state."
      Don't lawyers also need to cite cases from the federal
      court and from other states?  Aren't the West page
      numbers required when citing case law from all 50
      states and the lower federal courts?

      A:  Ask Professor Berring.

5.    How much money do federal and state governments pay
      West for law books and access to WESTLAW?

      A:  Again, Jamie, that's confidential business 
          information.  But it's interesting to note
          that since the shut down of JURIS, DOJ has,
          for the last several months been using WESTLAW,
          LEXIS and other private sector, online legal 
          information services -- and has reportedly
          saved over $1 million in legal research costs.
          In other words, federal and state governments
          are getting a bargain -- the best legal 
          information, delivered efficiently and at a
          fair price.

Regards,

Dorothy

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