Re: West: Ok for States to Coppright of Case Law

From: Alan Sugarman (sugarman@hyperlaw.com)
Date: Wed May 15 1996 - 21:57:00 PDT

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In my posting yesterday concerning the West argument in Oasis v. West
two weeks ago, I said:

"West, in an apparent right turn away from a long time Information
Industries Association (IIA) position, in argument before a Minnesota
District Court on April 26, 1996, in Oasis v. West, is now taking the
position THAT STATE GOVERNMENTS MAY COPYRIGHT CASE LAW REPORTS.
This is what was said by West's counsel, and this may be found on
paged 42-43 of the transcript of the argument filed with the court."

It has been pointed out to me in an e-mail in response that this new
position of West -- that states may copyright laws -- is also not
consistent with the position of the ABA IP Section and of Jim Schatz,
the chief copyright counsel for West, who authored a report for that
section in 1994. I quote the message I received that points this
out:

          "It's also a right turn from a report authored by
          Schatz in the ABA IP Section Annual Report
          1993-1994 in which he denounces attempts by states
          to copyright official legal compilations
          (something he further argues is OK for private
          publishers to do). "[S]tates could theoretically
          withhold their official statutory compilations
          from public dissemination if they were permitted
          to assert copyright protection over those
          materials. Howefer, such a result would be
          contrary to the concept of due process which
          requires that the public have unrestricted access
          to and use of the laws which govern them."

Joseph Musilek who argued the Minnesota motion for West is Schatz's
law partner. It is hard to believe that he said this off the cuff in
what otherwise appears to be a carefully scripted oral argument.

Wonder how West's colleagues in the IIA feel to have the rug pulled
out from under them on this issue that is extremely important to its
members.

I guess, anything to win THE CASE.

Alan

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