news flash -- Hyperlaw wins big copyright case against West monopoly

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

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Info-Policy-Notes | News from Consumer Project on Technology 
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November 3, 1998

	Hyperlaw wins copyright case -- 
	Court rules published court opinions 
	are in the public domain

	Alan Sugarman, the owner of Hyperlaw, just called.  Hyperlaw was just
won a very important copyright suit in the United States Court of
Appeals for the Second Circuit.  The Hyperlaw/West suit concerned two
issues. 

1.  Does West Publishing have a copyright on the citations to published
court opinions?

2.  Does West Publishing have a copyright on the published corrections
to court opinions.

	Hyperlaw, a small NYC firm that publishes court opinions on CD-ROM,
argued that the published court opinions were in the public domain. 
Today the 2nd Circuit agreed.  Background on this case is found at: 
 
	http://www.hyperlaw.com/hlvwest.htm

	This has been a closely watched case.  At stake is the public's right
to publish the text of court opinions, including corrections often only
found in West's bound volumes of court opinions, with citations based
upon the page numbers in the West bound volumes.  West is the only
comprehensive publisher in paper of federal district court and circuit
court opinions, and the body of legal scholarship and court opinions
rely upon West's citations and the corrected versions of court opinions
that appear in the West books. The case is a major blow to West
Publishing and Lexis, the two members of the so called Wexis cartel, and
it is a major victory for citizen access to legal information. 

	This dispute is also the driving force behind Congressional efforts to
create new legislation that would create new property rights in data. 
The federal legislation, which was defeated this year, would protect the
Wexis cartel from competition.   (see:
http://www.cptech.org/ip/database/)

	This is my quote:  

	"Alan Sugarman, the owner of Hyperlaw, has fought long and hard to
protect the public's rights in the most public of all data -- the law. 
If Hyperlaw had lost this suit, 75 years of published federal court
opinions would be owned by West Publishing.  For every citizen that is
expected to obey the law, this is good news.  It means the law belongs
to the people, not a private monopoly. "

	CPT has long supported efforts to broaden public access to legal
information.

   Jamie Love <love@cptech.org> 202.387.8030

  
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