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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 3, 1999
CONTACT:
Roger Parent
Executive Director
312-939-4764, X 11
rparent@aall.org
SUPREME COURT DENIES WEST APPEALS
On June 1, 1999, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari without comment in
two cases under appeal by West Publishing Company. In rejecting West's
petition for cert, the Court let stand two rulings by the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Second Circuit in favor of Matthew Bender & Co., now a
subsidiary of Reed Elsevier, and HyperLaw, Inc. The Second Circuit denied
West's longstanding claims of copyright for the page numbering system used
in their reporters and for the factual content of their collections of
opinions.
In so doing, they relied on the Supreme Court's 1991 ruling in Feist
Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co. that rejected copyright
protection for so-called "sweat of the brow" labor. The Supreme Court's
rejection of West's appeals is a victory for Matthew Bender and HyperLaw,
publishers of court opinions on CD-ROM. Joel Klein, head of the Justice
Department's antitrust division, noted that the circuit court's decision
potentially will lead to more competition in the legal publishing industry
and lower prices for consumers.
However, on a related issue in Congress, attempts have been made since 1996
to enact legislation that would protect databases from piracy, and
legislation is already under consideration by the 106th Congress to grant
new protections to database publishers. Publishers argue that they need
"sweat of the brow" incentives in order to expend the high costs of
compiling large databases, and West Publishing Co. and Reed Elsevier are
among the publishers who are fighting hardest for these new protections.
While this year's new legislative proposals have improved language excluding
government and government-funded databases, if enacted, the new protections
will likely apply to compilations of government information created and sold
by commercial entities, thereby mooting the decisions rendered by the Second
Circuit.
The American Association of Law Libraries led the library community in
filing an amicus brief with the Second Circuit regarding the
copyrightability of court opinions, and opposes current legislative efforts
to place court opinions under the umbrella of database protection.
The American Association of Law Libraries 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. Today, with over 4,600 members, the
Association represents law librarians and related professionals who are
affiliated with a wide range of institutions: law firms; law schools;
corporate legal departments; courts; and local, state and federal government
agencies. For more information, visit AALLNET, the official AALL web site,
at www.aallnet.org
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