Fun_People Archive
7 Feb
West Publishing seeks to weaken the Freedom of Info Act
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 95 18:19:37 PST
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: West Publishing seeks to weaken the Freedom of Info Act
[More rats in the walls... -psl]
Forwarded-by: bostic@CS.Berkeley.EDU (Keith Bostic)
Forwarded-by: kole@hydra.convex.com (John P. Kole)
From: William_Krueger@dallas.csd.sterling.com
Author: love@Essential.ORG
Subject: Help! West Publishing seeks broad change in FOIA
Distributed to TAP-INFO, a free Internet Distribution List
(subscription requests to listproc@tap.org)
TAXPAYER ASSETS PROJECT - INFORMATION POLICY NOTE
CROWN JEWELS CAMPAIGN - Juris, Legal Information
February 7, 1995
We need help from everyone!!!!!!!! Please distribute this
widely. jamie love (love@tap.org, 610/658-0880 or 202/387-
8030)
- Hearings set for today (Tuesday February 7) on bill
containing special interest provision for West Publishing.
Hearings will be held before the subcommittee on "Regulatory
Affairs."
- House republicans have slated quick action on the bill.
Subcommittee Mark-up is set for thursday and full committee
mark-up is set for friday. (Telephone and Fax numbers of
committee members given below)
- House republicans introduce legislation with a section
requested by West Publishing that will provide sweeping
changes in federal freedom of information act, and prevent
federal agencies from creating a public database that use
the West Publishing page numbers to reference case law.
- The "West Provision" would also end its lawsuit with Tax
Analyst, a Virginia publisher, who is seeking access to the
Department of Justice JURIS database of court decisions in
order to put the information into the public domain. Tax
Analysts alleges the JURIS database of court decisions are
subject to FOIA and not protected by copyright. A victory
by Tax Analysts in this case will lead to a public domain
database of federal court decisions.
- The West Provision in the legislation would extend far
beyond West Publishing's struggle to maintain its grip on
the market for legal information. It would exclude all
contractor generated records from the federal Freedom of
Information Act. Examples of databases that would be
affected by provision would be the SEC's EDGAR database and
the Department of Education ERIC database.
- Help needed in removing this special interest provision.
Telephone and fax numbers for the Subcommittee on Regulatory
Affairs are given below.
>From best we can determine, the so called "Paperwork Reduction
Act" bill was introduced late yesterday or will be introduced
early today. We do not have a bill number yet. There will be a
hearing on today (Tuesday February 7) before the "Subcommittee on
National Economic Growth, Natural Resources, and Regulatory
Affairs," more commonly referred to as the subcommittee on
"Regulatory Affairs." Subcommittee Mark-up is set for thursday
and full committee (the apparently misnamed Committee on
Government Reform and Oversight) mark-up is set for friday.
A provision in this bill [Section 3518 (f) of the "Chairman's
Mark"] would do the following.
If any person "adds value" to public information, the
federal government would not have "any right to obtain,
collect, acquire, disseminate, use or convert," the
data, database or information product, or "any method
used by the person to identify such resulting data,
databases or information product," except "under terms
that are expressly agreed to by such person."
This provision is being sold as a simple restatement of the law,
but that is a far from true (or more bluntly, a lie). The
provision in the bill is so broad that it covers all contractor
performed work on behalf of agencies, and effectively exempts
contractor generated records from the federal Freedom of
Information Act (FOIA). For example, since LEXIS "adds value" to
the EDGAR database by taking the incomming filings from the
government and putting them in a database, even if the government
had a copy of the database, it could not dissmeinate the records
without the consent of LEXIS. Likewise, many databases, such as
the Department of Education ERIC database, are largely put
together by private contactors. Indeed, if Oliver North had used
a private contractor for the White House email system, those
records would appear to be off limits to both FOIA and a
government supeana. Moreover, the provison would apply even in
cases where the firm did not have a copyright or any other
protectable intellectually property right, a huge change in
federal law.
The provision would specifically apply to an active federal
lawsuit between West Publishing and Tax Analysts, over the
Department of Justice JURIS database. West Publishing was a
contractor on JURIS, an online system run by the Department of
Justice, which contains several decades of federal court
decisions. West Publishing is trying to prevent Tax Analysts
from obtaining copies of court decisions contained in the
government's JURIS database. Tax Analyst believes the records
are subject to FOIA, and not protected by copyright. If Tax
Analysts (fmi, Tom Field, 703/533-4400 or Eleanor Lewis 301/652-
3453) wins the law suit, which has been very expensive, it plans
to put the data into the public domain, creating a public
database of federal court decisions -- something that West
Publishing is fighting against. Moreover, the West assertion of
its copyright of legal citations is being challenged in federal
court in New York by Hyperlaw, a small CD-ROM publisher (fmi,
Alan Sugarman, President, 212/877-1371, sugarman@panix.com). If
Sugarman wins his case, the West provision would prevent the
Department of Justice from using the West citations in a public
database.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
We are asking people to send a brief message by fax the members
to the full committee, asking Congress to delete the special
interest provison for West Publishing.
Committee on Government Reform and Oversight
104th Congress
** = Subcommittee on National Economic Growth, Natural Resources,
and Regulatory Affairs
REPUBLICAN
William Clinger, Jr. (PA) 225-5121 225-4681
Benjamin Gilman, (NY) 225-3776 225-2541
Dan Burton, (IA) 225-2276 225-0016
Constance Morella, (MD) 225-5341 225-1389
Christopher Shays, (CO) 225-5541 225-9629
Steven Schiff, (NM) 225-6316 225-4975
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, (FL) 225-3931 225-5620
William Zeliff, Jr. (NH) 225-5456 225-4370
John McHugh, (NY) ** 225-4611 226-0621
Stephen Horn, (CA) 225-6676 226-1012
John Mica, (FL) 225-4035 226-0821
Peter Blute, (MA) 225-6101 225-2217
Thomas Davis, (VA) 225-1492 225-3071
David McIntosh, (IA) 225-3021 225-3382
Jon Fox, (PA) ** 225-6111 225-3155
Randy Tate, (WA) ** 225-8901 225-3484
Dick Chrysler, (MI) 225-4872 225-3034
Gil Gutknecht, (MN) ** 225-2472 225-3246
Mark Souder, (IA) 225-4436 225-3479
William Martini, (NJ) 225-5751 225-3372
Joe Scarborough, (FL) ** 225-4136 225-3414
John Shadegg, (AZ) ** 225-3361 225-3462
Michael Flanagan, (IL) 225-4061 225-3128
Charles Bass, (NH) 225-5206 225-2946
Steve LaTourette, (OH) 225-5731 225-3307
Mark Sanford, (SC) 225-3176 225-3407
Robert Ehrlich, Jr. (MD) ** 225-3061 225-3094
DEMOCRAT
Cardiss Collins, (IL) 225-5006 225-8396
Henry Waxman, (CA) ** 225-3976 225-4099
Tom Lantos, (CA) 225-3531 225-7900
Robert Wise, Jr. (WV) 225-2711 225-7856
Major Owens, (NY) 225-6231 226-0112
Edolphus Towns, (NY) 225-5936 225-1018
John Spratt, Jr. (SC) ** 225-5501 225-0464
Louise Slaughter, (NY) ** 225-3615 225-7822
Paul Kanjorski, (PA) ** 225-6511 225-0764
Gary Condit, (CA) ** 225-6131 225-0819
Collin Peterson, (MN) ** 225-2165 225-1593
Karen Thurman, (FL) 225-1002 226-0329
Carolyn Maloney, (NY) 225-7944 225-4709
Thomas Barrett, (WI) 225-3571 225-2185
Gene Taylor, (MI) 225-5772 225-7074
Barbara Rose Collins, (MI) 225-2261 225-6645
Eleanor Holmes Norton, (DC) 225-8050 225-3002
James P. Moran, (VA) 225-4376 225-0017
Gene Green, (TX) 225-1688 225-9903
Carrie Meek, (FL) 225-4506 226-0777
Frank Mascara, (PA) 225-4665 225-3377
Chaka Fattah, (PA) 225-4001 225-6466
INDEPENDENT
Bernard Sanders, (VT) 225-4115 225-6790
Key Administration Officials:
OMB
Sally Katzen voice: 202/395-4852
sally.katzen@eop.sprint.com
Bruce McConnell voice: 202/395-3785
bruce.mcconnell@eop.sprint.com
Department of Justice
Paul Friedman voice: 202/514-1721
friedman@justice.doj.gov
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© 1995 Peter Langston
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