In 1969, Raymond M. Taylor, then Librarian for the North Carolina Supreme
Court, published an article in the American Bar Association Journal
entitled "Law Book Consumers Need Protection." This article detailed the
abuses and sharp practices of the legal publishing industry, and, by
calling the attention of the larger legal community to the problem,
pressured the Federal Trade Commission into looking at the industry. The
FTC announced in November, 1969 that it would conduct an industry-wide
investigation to determine whether law book publishers were engaged in
unfair or deceptive acts or practices in commerce. Eventually, it issued
its "Guides for the Law Book Industry" (16 CFR Part 256). Significantly,
this is the only segment of the publishing industry for which such Guides
have been issued.
In his recent book, Legal Information Buyer's Guide & Reference Manual,
Ken Svengalis argues that, while the Guides have had a salutory effect in
reducing nuisance violations, many of the more significant problems
identified by Taylor persist. Some of these have to do with pricing,
which cannot be addressed directly by the FTC, since in a free market,
the publisher can charge whatever the market will bear. We can expect to
find out what the market will bear, as Thomson-owned companies lead the
way in testing its limits.
However, there are provisions in the Guides which are designed to make
"accurate and truthful information readily available" to prospective
purchasers, and Sect. 256.2 "Disclosusres relative to supplementation" is
particularly improtant in law libraries, where most of our dollars go to
supplementation. This section requires, among other things, that "Direct
mail promotional materials...soliciting the sale of specific industry
products should...clarly and conspicuously disclose...(b)Any charge for
the latest pocket parts or supplement, and the clearly identified period
of time within which supplementation will be supplied without additional
charge,...(e)Minimum supplementation costs for each of the past 2
calendar years..."
Every day, it seems, we receive in our daily bushel of flyers and
brochures material which includes no information about supplementation or
inadequate information. It is particularly annoying when there is no
information about the cost of supplements over a period of at least 2
years, since this is at least some indication of rising costs. I have on
my desk at this moment brochures from Michie, West, Wiley, Warren Gorham
& Lamont, James and others which do not appear to be in compliance with
these Guides. The phenomenon is sufficiently widespread that I am
wondering whether our publishers have concluded that, in the tumult of
the current marketplace, no one will notice. The FTC lacks both the
manpower and the will to enforce the guides. We can ask CRIV to contact
publishers about non-compliance, but publishers of secondary materials
regard lawyers as their market, rather than law libraries, and IMHO are
increasingly unresponsive to our concerns. We need another Raymond
Taylor, or maybe lots of them, to call to the attention of the larger
legal community what is happening in legal publishing.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Joe K. Stephens
Law Librarian Phone: (503) 986-5640
Oregon Supreme Court Library Fax: (503) 986-5560
1163 State Street E-Mail: jstephen@willamette.edu
Salem, Oregon 97310
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