To: William Grady et al.
Appleman is indeed one of the products to be divested (see 61 Fed. Reg.
35265 (1996)). The proposed consent decree, which appears to largely
have the blessing of Judge Friedman, specified the divesture of six
national treatises in five subject areas (among 45 other titles). These
include Appleman on Insurance (West), Corbin on Contracts (West), Manual
of Federal Practice (Givens, formerly published by Shepard's),
Bankruptcy Law & Practice(Cowans, West), Bankruptcy (Epstein, Nickles &
White, West), and Search & Seizure (Ringel, CBC). The plans for the 2d
edition were no doubt formulated prior to the merger, but its appearance
does add marginally to the marketability and price of the package of
divestitures.
An analysis of the 533 treatise titles selected for inclusion in my
"Legal Information Buyer's Guide and Reference Manual 1996" showed that
these six titles constituted only 1.12% of the total--hardly enough to
cause even a ripple in the overall makeup of the market. In the five
subject areas covered by these six books (bankruptcy, contracts,
criminal law, federal practice and procedure and insurance) West-Thomson
had market concentrations of between 60% and 70%. However, I found an
additional thirteen subject areas with equal or greater market
concentration which the Justice Department did not even touch
(administrative law; admiralty and maritime law; arts, entertainment and
sports law; civil rights, constitutional law; education law; municipal
corporations; products liability; social security; statutory
construction; taxation; torts; and trusts and estates).
In the aftermath of the Microsoft decision, however, Judge Friedman felt
compelled to accept the deeply flawed agreement put forth by the Justice
Department back in June. This no doubt explains why he apparently
confined his decision to the star pagaination license which he,
correctly, saw as the most egregious flaw in the proposed consent
decree. His decision, and that of Judge Martin a few back, only serves
to highlight the weakness of that agreement. Now, stripped of the star
pagination licensing provision, which the Justice Department naively
viewed at the time as a major concession, the remainder of the agreement
is hollow indeed.
The legal information consumer will be paying for many years as a
consequence of the DOJ's sorry performance.
Kendall Svengalis
R.I. State Law Library
ristlaw@ids.net
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