Subject: citation system (ATN Joan Countryman)
        Date: Tue, 04 Mar 1997 01:32:15 -0500
        From: Scott Draves <spot@cs.cmu.edu>
Organization: Carnegie Mellon University
          To: citation@teo.uscourts.gov

     It has come to my attention that there's a chance to break West 
publishing's monopoly on federal case reporters. The ABA has 
endorsed a new system that would make the law accessible to the 
public at low cost.  As a PhD candidate in Computer Science, I am 
somewhat familiar with intellectual property (at least as it pertains 
to software), and information distribution in general. I have spent 
a great deal of time thinking about the "wired" future of government 
and information. I believe it is *crucial* to the future of 
democracy that the Law and legal citation information be free to the 
public. Thank you for your attention.

                                   Scott Draves