[This message has been sent to AALL members and the Law-Lib listserv; please
excuse the duplication]
CONTACT:
Margaret Barge or William P. Figel
Figel, Inc.
tel. 312/223-9536 fax: 312/223-9553
email: figelinc@earthlink.net
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
US COURT OF APPEALS UPHOLDS ARGUMENT RAISED BY AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF LAW
LIBRARIES AMICUS BRIEF IN MATTHEW BENDER & CO. V. WEST PUBLISHING CO.
CHICAGO, NOVEMBER 4, 1998 -- Yesterday, the United States Court of Appeals
for the Second Circuit ruled on Matthew Bender & Co. v. West Publishing
Group, impacting the future of free public access to public information.
The finding for Matthew Bender & Co. follows the recommendations raised by
The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) and five major library
associations in their amicus brief filed in the first of these cases, which
urged the court to uphold the important right of access to public
information.
"This is an important victory for the access to government information, and
in this particular situation, to judicial decisions," said AALL President
Jim Heller. "The American Association of Law Libraries believes that the
public must have free access to state and federal court decisions,
legislative, administrative regulations and other information that is
produced by governmental agencies at taxpayers' expense." In the first case,
the Court was asked to consider whether court opinions, as edited by West
Publishing Co., were copyrightable. West argued that they were protected
based on the creativity inherent in the editorial enhancements they make to
the opinions. The amicus brief filed by AALL and the library associations
disagreed, noting that the opinions are public information and the other
enhancements are not protected. A two judge majority of the Court found
that the opinions themselves, not including the syllabi, headnotes, and Key
Numbers, are not copyrightable. The Court held that West's other editorial
enhancements, including, among other things, the selection and arrangement
of attorney information, the arrangement of information relating to
subsequent developments, and the selection of parallel and alternative
citations, are not sufficiently creative to warrant protection under the
Copyright Act. In a separate issue raised during the second case, the
Appeals court rejected West's claim that competing publishers insertion of
page numbers from West reporters into a CD-ROM version of court opinions
amounted to a copying of West's arrangement of the opinions. The Court
specifically indicated its disagreement with an earlier opinion from the 8th
Circuit:
West Publishing Co. v. Mead Data Central, Inc. 799 F.2d 1219 (8th Cir.1986).
The Second Circuit explained: "[t]he Eight Circuit ... adduces no authority
for protecting pagination as a 'reflection' of arrangement, and does not
explain how the insertion of star pagination created a 'copy' featuring an
arrangement of cases substantially similar to West's .... It is true that
star pagination enables users to locate ... a piece of text within the West
volume. But this location does not result in any proximate way from West's
original arrangement of cases (or any other exercise of original creation)
and may be lawfully copied."
About AALL:
The American Association of Law Libraries (AALL) was founded in 1906 to
promote and enhance the value of law libraries to the legal and public
communities, to foster the profession of law librarianship, and to provide
leadership in the field of legal information. To learn more about AALL,
contact Executive Director Roger Parent, 312/939-4764 or visit AALL's web
site, www.aall.org.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Nov 14 2007 - 20:49:59 PST