Cost of West Pagination License

[James Love <love@tap.org>]

                 What is the Cost of the West 
              Compulsory License for Pagination?  
                           V. 1.0  
                     September 26, 1996
  
                        James Love
  
  The West copyright, if it exists, is for seventy five years, 
  or from about 1921.  We looked at West Reporters since about 
  1924.  Based upon our samples, there appear to be three 
  sizes for the reporters.  From 1924 until 1969, the 
  reporters where an average of 1,004 pages.  From 1969 to 
  1983, the reporters were an average of 1,395 pages, and from 
  1983 to the present, they were an average of 1, 583 pages.  
  (These averages based upon numbers for every 50th volume for 
  the older volumes, and every 10th volume for the most recent 
  volumes.)
  
  We then did a very quick and dirty look at characters per 
  page, looking at only one sample from each of the three 
  periods.  From F.2d Vol. 1, we examined 11 cases over 31 
  pages, which had 91,974 characters, with 2,967 characters 
  per page.  From F.2d Vol. 600, we examined 11 cases, over 17 
  pages,  with 2,251 characters per page.  From F.2d. Vol. 
  800, we examined 11 cases over 42 pages, with 2,602 
  characters per page.  These numbers are low, because the 
  compulsory license includes control or formatting characters 
  which are used by West, and we do not yet have a clue how 
  much of an increase this requires.
  
  The cost of the license depends upon the year, beginning at 
  4 cents per 1,000 characters and ending at 9 cents per 1,000 
  characters (plus inflation), for every year and every 
  product.
  
  Based upon these statistics, the cost (without taking into 
  account the control characters) of a license for a single 
  volume of a West Reporter (the F.2d and the Supp are the 
  same length in pages and use the same fonts), would be as 
  follows.
  
             ANNUAL COST OF PAGINATION LICENSE PER 
             WEST VOLUME, WITHOUT CONTROL CHARACTERS
  
                                           Year 1    Year 7
                         Pages    Char/P   @ .04     @.09 
                            
  >From 1924 to 1969      1,004    2,967    $ 119     $ 268
  >From 1969 to 1983      1,395    2,251    $ 126     $ 283
  >From 1983 to Present   1,583    2,602    $ 165     $ 371
  
  Regime Change in Books  
  
  F.2d               F.Supp         
  1-403              1-292                1,004 pages
  404-703            293-563              1,395 pages
  704- Present       564-Present          1,583 pages
  
  I assume that this can be improved with some additional 
  sampling, and particularly, with some help on what the 
  control characters add to the cost.  
  
  Jamie
  love@tap.org
  
  If someone wanted to help on this, they could break down the 
  volumes by year for me... allowing me to show the cumulative 
  cost by year, going backwards, per publication.
  
  
  
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
  James Love / love@tap.org / P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
  Voice: 202/387-8030; Fax 202/234-5176
  Center for Study of Responsive Law
     Consumer Project on Technology; http://www.essential.org/cpt
     Taxpayer Assets Project; http://www.tap.org
  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~