[10005] in Commercialization & Privatization of the Internet
Re: West sued by Matthew Bender
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Alan Sugarman)
Thu Feb 3 20:47:37 1994
Date: Thu, 3 Feb 1994 20:28:16 -0500 (EST)
From: Alan Sugarman <sugarman@panix.com>
To: francis@avalle.insoft.com
Cc: com-priv@psi.com
In-Reply-To: <9402032235.AA15289@avalle.insoft.com>
Re the question "who is Matthew Bender"?
I quote the Complaint which is dated January 31, 1994:
"Matthew Bender [&Company, Inc.] is one of this country's leading legal
publishers, Matthew Bender publishes, inter alia, treatises, form books,
casebooks and practice guides"
Other statements in the Complaint
"Matthew Bender currently publishes a number of its legal publications in a
CD-ROM format...Matthew Bender will publish a new CD-ROM publication
entitled "Search Master New York Practice Library With Cases. The first
release of this publication wil be a comprehensive collection of published
and unpublished decisions of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and the
four United States District Courts within the state if New York."
"West incorrectly contends that it possesses federal statutory copyright
in the pagination of West's federal reporters."
"West has threatened to initiate suit against Mathew Bender if Matthew
Bender includes the pagination of West's federal reporters in Matthew
Bender's CD-ROM publication."
Elsehwhere, the Complaint states:
"West's federal reporters have obtained a de facto status as the official
reporter of the lower federal courts for this purpose of citation. ... The
rules adopted by many of the federal courts (e.g., the local rules of the
Third Circuit Court of Appeals) require [West] citations ...The official
status of citations to the volume and page numbers of the West federal
reporters if further reflected in their use as the standard citation form
in the printed slip opinions of the United States Supreme Court..."
Alan Sugarman
HyperLaw
On Thu, 3 Feb 1994 francis@avalle.insoft.com wrote:
>
> >Matthew Bender is seeking a declaratory judgment as to the
> >validity of the copyrights West claims in the pagination of
> >its reporters of legal decisions.
>
> Question: who is Matthew Bender?
>
> /===========================================================================\
> |John (Francis) Stracke | My opinions are my own. |
> |InSoft, Inc. |==================================================|
> |Mechanicsburg, PA | Please do not adjust your mind--reality is |
> |francis@insoft.com | malfunctioning. |
> \===========================================================================/
