Almost as soon as the technology existed for computers to talk to one another, so grew the notion of information as transient, kinetic, ubiquitious and unbound. As Stewart Brand, author, editor and creator of the Whole Earth Catalog noted at the Hacker’s Conference in 1984, “The information wants to be free.”
And today it is, with free repositories of caselaw, plus regulatory and administrative materials easily accessed through hundreds of government and commercial Web sites – including our own, FindLaw, which offers one of the Web’s largest collections of free legal information.
These sites are a great resource for professionals and personal users interested in general background on a legal matter or case. But for specialized users, and for the most critical applications, information needs to be more than free.
It needs to be relevant, current, contextual, organized and authoritative – requiring rigor, process and, for West, a human hand guided by unique expertise and insight.
We asked Bob Berring, legal research guru and Walter Perry Johnson Professor of Law at the University of Califonia, Berkeley, for his thoughts on the matter:
Editor’s note (Oct. 30, 2009): West has published legal research titles authored by Bob Berring. He was a consultant and speaker at law librarian events for West until 2007.
Posted by John Shaughnessy in:
In Practice | Video |
Would it not be proper and moral for Professor Berring to disclose he is a paid spokesperson for West? This video resembles those of doctors shilling for pharmaceutical companies and not disclosing they are being compensated. Seems very dishonest and potentially very unethical, would you not agree?
Bob is certainly a guru and a legend, but he is also a paid spokesperson for West and he should say so. If not it borders on being unethical. Edit the video with text that says it at the bottom and everything is fine.
What, if any, compensation has Prof. Berring received from West or other commercial publishers? Where exactly does Prof. Berring think most of WestLaw’s Federal Reporter decisions came from? It wasn’t West that funded the capture of that data. It was the U.S. Air Force!
I am troubled by the comments impugning my ethics and moral bona fides. The statements are false. I am not a spokesperson for West, nor was I compensated for my remarks. They were made as part of video tribute being put together for the 2009 AALL meeting. The beauty of being an old, tenured professor is that one can say just what one means. And I did. You might contend that I am off base, but I say what I believe to be true. The issues are worth discussing. Ad hominen attacks don’t add much to that discussion.
Professor Berring – apologies if I misspoke. Your video seemed very much an ad hominen attack on what you term to be “volunteers”, pooh-poohing some pretty dedicated people who have spent decades trying to make legal information more useful. If you spoke from the heart and not the wallet, more power to you, and I hope we can have a discussion on the merits of the issues. Carl
We could have this conversation in a much more civil tone face to face – no name calling, no accusations. I offer to host a beer summit in Washington, D.C. with Bob, Tom Bruce, and Carl Malamud. Carl and Tom have already agreed. Bob?
Count me in. I love to discuss these issues,
[...] post featuring a video of Bob Berring discussing free legal information on the Thomson Reuters blog has stirred up debate in the comments. Charges by Carl Malamud that Bob is a “paid [...]
[...] In his time he’s consulted for West. How closely associated he is I do not know; he plays West up substantially in this YouTube clip. (See also this post and the comments thereto on Thomson Reuters blog Legal Current.) [...]
[...] An interesting debate over free access to law is now occurring in the legal blogosphere. Thomson Reuters, owners of West Publishing, a major U.S. legal publisher, and the Westlaw computer assisted legal [...]
Hmmm, if these “hooks” are really the value added by West and Lexis, why are they so protective of the barriers to entry to any competitors–i.e. the back log of public domain cases that are no longer available directly from the courts. Frankly, that hook dwarfs any other hooks in West and Lexis’s tackleboxes.
[...] began the talk by showing the Bob Berring (also a dynamic and entertaining, not to be missed speaker) video that is making the law library [...]
[...] there’s more to say about the West marketing video that features Bob Berring. That’s an awkward way to refer to it, but it’s [...]
[...] West Group’s edit of Bob Berring’s remarks on free access to law leads with the interesting assertion that government should get out of the legal information business because “every time government has tried to take over the provision of legal information it’s failed”. This is worth a little discussion, in part because it so patently reveals West Group’s worst nightmares, and in part because it’s not clear which variety of government activity West is talking about. [...]
[...] the debate on open access to legal information has been raging, with some folks sticking up for the Westlaw/Lexis walled-garden approach that requires steep payments for “value-added” access to [...]
I was looking for information on the beer summit.
[...] recently, West released a video of University of California, Berkeley professor and law librarian Bob Berring explaining the [...]
[...] 2. “Berring on free legal information” [...]
[...] In his time he’s consulted for West. How closely associated he is I do not know; he plays West up substantially in this YouTube clip. (See also this post and the comments thereto on Thomson Reuters blog Legal Current.) [...]
[...] Holmes also discusses the recent debate between Bob Berring, Tom Bruce, and others over the quality of access to law provided by commercial computer assisted [...]