Subject: citation system Date: Thu, 13 Mar 1997 00:57:40 -0800 (PST) From: Cem Kaner To: citation@teo.uscourts.gov Law Office of Cem Kaner P.O. Box 1200 Santa Clara, CA 95052-1200 408-244-7000 Judicial Council of the United States I am writing to urge you to adopt the American Bar Association's proposal for a uniform citation system. My arguments are the same ones that you've heard from so many other advocates of this system. It is inappropriate to give such a degree of ownership and control over the publishing and electronic distribution of official court opinions to a single publisher, especially one that has been so heavily concerned with asserting the greatest imaginable degree of intellectual property ownership over what should be public domain information. Adopting a vendor-neutral citation system allows publishers and customers to use public domain court materials without having to refer to a private vendor's (according to it, copyrighted) page numbers. The idea that we will grant a private company a copyright in the official page numbers of the official records of the United States, and then require all citations to be to that publisher's page numbers is outrageous. These are public records. I should be able to post usable, citable copies of any court opinion on my web site, freely available to my clients and to the public at large, without having to beg a private publisher for permission. Thank you for your attention to this memo. Yours truly Cem Kaner Cem Kaner, J.D., Ph.D. Attorney at Law P.O. Box 1200 408-244-7000 Santa Clara, CA 95052 Author (with Falk & Nguyen) of TESTING COMPUTER SOFTWARE (2nd Ed, VNR) This e-mail communication should not be interpreted as legal advice or a legal opinion. The transmission of this e-mail communication does not create an attorney-client relationship between me and you. Do not act or rely upon law-related information in this communication without seeking the advice of an attorney.