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You're gonna' LOVE this ... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 7 Feb 1995 13:50:40 CST From: James Love <love@Essential.ORG> To: Multiple recipients of list PACS-L <PACS-L@UHUPVM1.UH.EDU> Subject: Help! West Publishing seeks broad change in FOIA (fwd) ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- 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 --------------------------------------------------------------------- TAP-INFO is an Internet Distribution List provided by the Taxpayer Assets Project (TAP). TAP was founded by Ralph Nader to monitor the management of government property, including information systems and data, government funded R&D, spectrum allocation and other government assets. TAP-INFO reports on TAP activities relating to federal information policy. tap-info is archived at ftp and gopher at essential.org and cpsr.org. 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