Subject: Comments re: Public Domain Legal Citations Date: Fri, 14 Mar 1997 16:13:12 -0500(EST) From: Betsy Sandison To: citation@teo.uscourts.gov CC: Betsy Sandison Betsy Sandison Director Baltimore County Circuit Court Law Library 401 Bosley Avenue Towson, MD 21204 March 14, 1997 Dear Members of the Judicial Conference of the United States' Committee on Automation and Technology: I am writing to comment on the ABA Citation Resolution. As the Director of a library that is the only public library in Baltimore County, I strongly endorse the adoption of the uniform citation system proposed by the ABA. If federal courts adopt a public domain citation format for decisions, these decisions could be readily disseminated in a citeable format on the Internet. As a public law library, we cannot afford subscriptions to online services such as Westlaw and Lexis that would provide our patrons with immediate access to cases not yet in the advance sheets. We do, however, have Internet access that we use to obtain public domain information, such as legislative information, for the public. Court decisions are public domain materials and as such should not only be available to the public at no or little cost, but should also be available in a format that is useful, citeable that is! Members of the public should not be dependent upon West advance sheets to access or cite recent cases. A public domain citation format would facilitate the electronic publishing of cases and thus would enable patrons to perform online searches to obtain cases and cite to those cases in legal pleadings. I agree that the headnotes, syllabi, and key numbers are "value added" features and should be copyrightable. However, the idea of a page numbering system being worthy of copyright protection is absurd! Court decisions belong in the public domain and should be released in a format that will reach the greatest percentage of U.S. citizenry. My library will most certainly continue to purchase the West Reporters for the value added features, however, I can assure you that we will never be able to provide our patrons with commercial online access to court decisions. Even in a relatively affluent county, $2.00-4.00 a minute for online access is out of our reach. You can imagine the impossibility of poorer counties providing access! For the sake of the public, I urge you to adopt the ABA's Public Domain Citation Proposal. It is un-American and undemocratic to allow a corporate entity limit the dissemination of public information. I can be reached at 410-887-3086 if you require further information. Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Betsy Sandison Director, Baltimore County Circuit Court Law Library