Westlaw and Elsevier Own the Law (Score 1)

Westlaw and Elsevier Own the Law
http://www.google.com/search?q=westlaw+owns+the+la w

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&saf e=off&q=Jurisline

As I recall... And I Am Not A Lawyer...
Westlaw prints the law books lawyers use... they 'added value' to the legal decisions judges wrote by putting in PAGE NUMBERS. This pagination was used as an attempt to defend their monopoly over the distribution of the content of the law as lawyers used that pagination to cite the law and the pagination was proprietary, value added content. Including the pagination in any duplication of the public domain work was (?is) illegal under copyright law. (I thought this was solved be the removal of the pagination).

Jurisline.com attempted an end run of the Reed Elsevier (/Lexis) publishing empire's hold over online access to public domain law (Reed ironically swiped the data from Westlaw). Apparently Jurisline lost while Elsevier/Lexis got away with it:

http://www.ambar.org/journal/aug00/nstartup.html

Jurisline's attempt to make this info freely available over the net is well chronicled at:

http://showcase.netins.net/web/trhalvorson/law/jur isline.shtml

As mentioned by other posters, the notion that changing the law would be an unlawful derivitive work of copyrighted material is Kafkaesque hilarious - only the original creator, not necessarily an elected legislator, could change the law...
A curious requiem for Douglas Adams, I hope his spirit (and executors!) accept what I believe is fair and fitting use of a portion of his work:

"""
"People of Earth, your attention
please," a voice said, and it was
wonderful. Wonderful perfect
quadrophonic sound with
distortion levels so low as to make
a brave man weep. "This is
Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz of the
Galactic Hyperspace Planning
Council," the voice continued. "As
you will no doubt be aware, the
plans for development of the
outlying regions of the Galaxy
require the building of a
hyperspatial express route through
your star system, and regrettably
your planet is one of those
scheduled for demolition. The
process will take slightly less that
two of your Earth minutes. Thank
you." The PA died away.
Uncomprehending terror settled on
the watching people of Earth. The
terror moved slowly through the
gathered crowds as if they were
iron fillings on a sheet of board and
a magnet was moving beneath
them. Panic sprouted again,
desperate fleeing panic, but there
was nowhere to flee to. Observing
this, the Vogons turned on their
PA again. It said: "There's no point
in acting all surprised about it. All
the planning charts and demolition
orders have been on display in
your local planning department on
Alpha Centauri for fifty of your
Earth years, so you've had plenty
of time to lodge any formal
complaint and it's far too late to
start making a fuss about it now."
"""
-The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

Exemptions may be made for fair 'non-infringing' use through the Library of Congress. In a hurry all I could find was:

http://www.ala.org/washoff/Rulemaking.PDF

Providing access to the Law the Citizen is required to abide by seems like a sensible exemption -- allowing unfettered access to this particular class of work through the web seems essential for the 21st Century Citizenry to uphold their civic responsibilities and be Law Abiding Citizens.

Law Links:
http://www.FindLaw.com
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/

p.s. just because .Gov created/stewards it doesn't mean some politician or bureaucrat can't Sell it Cheap to one of their friends. (i.e. public lands for drilling/logging/railroads, air waves/spectrum for radio, the RIAA's attempt to make musicians creative efforts 'works for hire' in the middle of the night )-:

http://www.HavenWorks.com/
"Vote and be vigilant"
- http://www.HavenWorks.com/hermit/

I reserve the right to change my mind, especially when new or better evidence is brought to light. -Haven Hermit
j-)