On-Line Contract Case Study

 The Martindale Hubbell Law Directory is a print directory that contains information about virtually every lawyer practicing in the U.S. and Canada (and a number of other countries as well). As you might expect, it is a very big directory. Each entry typically contains contact information for each lawyer, as well as limited biographical information (e.g. school attended, areas of specialization, etc.). The compilation and maintenance of this body of information takes a significant amount of work.

Martindale Hubbell makes its directory available, not only in print, but also on the web. Users can access the site and search the database to find lawyers by name, by geographic location, by specialty, or by any of a number of different criteria.

On the site, there is a copyright notice. Within that notice, there is a link to a document that sets forth the terms and conditions for the use of the directory. Go to the web-site now by clicking here and find the terms and conditions.

Did you find them? Here is an excerpt from the terms and conditions:

"You are hereby granted a nonexclusive, nontransferable, limited license to view, reproduce, print, and distribute insignificant portions of materials retrieved from this Site provided (a) it is used only for informational, non-commercial purposes, (b) you do not remove or obscure the copyright notice or other notices. Except as expressly provided above, no part of this Site, including but not limited to materials retrieved therefrom and the underlying code, may be reproduced, republished, copied, transmitted, or distributed in any form or by any means. In no event shall materials from this Site be stored in any information storage and retrieval system without prior written permission Martindale-Hubbell."

Question 1: When you accessed the Martindale Hubbell site, did you, by accessing the site, agree to the above terms? Are you now legally bound by them? The site itself says that use of the site is subject to these terms and conditions. But is that true, as a matter of contract law? What if you had not clicked on or read the copyright notice? Would you still bound? Paragraph 9 of the terms and conditions says that if the terms are not acceptable, you must immediately terminate your use of the site. What if you don't?

Question 2: Suppose you have a friend who is looking for an attorney to handle a personal injury suit. As a favor, you do a search on the Martindale Hubbell site and find a list of 10 attorneys in her geographical area who might be able to handle the matter. You copy the text from the web-site and paste it into an e-mail, which you send to your friend. But you do not include the copyright notice. Have you breached the terms and conditions listed above?

Question 3: Suppose, now, that you are a budding entrepreneur and wish to create a legal directory focused on the particular city you live in. Suppose also that you want to include much more detailed information than is included in the Martindale Hubbell directory. Suppose finally that you currently do not have the funds or resources to collect the basic contact information yourself. Can you search through the Martindale Hubbell directory and take out the factual information contained in each of the listings? Can you put the information up on the web?

Question 4: Copyright law protects certain types of works, but not others; it bars copying in some circumstances, but permits it in others. Web-site owners often attempt to use contract law to rearrange this set of rights by extending protection to different types of works and asserting greater control over their use. Should we be concerned about this? What arguments are there in favor of giving web-site owners this control? Arguments against?

Hypothetical 1: On-Line Contracts
Hypothetical 1: Sources

Hypothetical 2: Technological Protection
Hypothetical 2: Sources