Folks, sorry to run this story to ground, but here's
what's up with West/DOJ as revealed this week in the
nomination hearing of Joel Klein to head DOJ's antitrust
division.
I finally got my hands on the written questions Senator
Grassley put to DOJ antitrust nominee Joel Klein, which
were sent to me by a reporter (Grassley's office claimed
not to have a fax machine, but that's another story).
"Question 5. Have you ever met Vance Opperman or any other
member of the Opperman family? Have you ever had any contact
with anyone representing or working for West Publishing?"
A. "So far as I am aware, I have never met with Vance Opperman
or any other member of the Opperman family."
"As part of my responsibilities as a Deputy Assistant Attorney
General at the Antitrust Division, I supervised the civil and
appellate actions of the Antitrust Division. In that role I met
twice, to my knowledge, with lawyers representing West Publishing
who attempted to convince the Antitrust Division not to take any
action in opposition to West's copyright claim for star pagination.
I found their arguments unpersuasive, and under my direction the
Antitrust Division filed briefs as Amicus Curiae in opposition to
West's copyright claim in the Southern District of New York and the
Eighth Circuit. I also met on at least two occasions with lawyers
representing West regarding a civil investigation regarding West,
who attempted to convince me not to issue civil process. I was
unconvinced, the Division did issue civil process, and the
investigation is ongoing."
This morning I talked to a DOJ public affairs spokeswoman.
She said that "there is an ongoing investigation of the computer-
assisted legal research industry" and that she could not comment
further.
This sounds like exactly what happened in 1994, and as Jamie
Love pointed out yesterday, the investigation went nowhere and
died a nice, quiet death.
Scott Wetzel
CD Law, Inc.
1000 2nd Ave., Suite 1610 Seattle WA 98104
http://www.cdlaw.com
(206) 623-1688
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