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West Publishing Loses Copyright CaseA federal appeals court ruled November 3 that the database of legal publisher West Publishing is not entitled to key copyright protection. If upheld, the ruling would allow other companies to copy and reprint parts of the text of West's published court decisions, and to use West's page-numbering system—the standard way lawyers cite decisions—in their products. Some lawyers predicted the ruling could prompt greater competition and lower-priced legal-research tools. Jamie Love, director of the Consumer Project on Technology, told the Washington Post, "Prices will probably now fall a lot and you're likely to see venture capitalists, who had been scared off by the legal cloud over this industry, start pouring money into all sorts of competitors." The Post noted that the decision may be superceded by congressional action: A bill giving copyright protection to databases even when the individual contents were not protected, dropped in the final days of the last Congress, is expected to be a legislative priority next year. Posted November 9, 1998. |
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