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Legal publishers have attempted to get around the public domain status by claiming that unique page numbering systems are copyrightable. These publishers argued that you can copy and distribute a court decision, but you cannot copy the page numbering, which is crucial to the official citation system used by the courts. For many years, Lexis and other computerized legal research systems could not cite to the official page numbering system used by West publications. In a 1994 case, West Publishing Company sued when a legal publisher, Matthew Bender, incorporated West's page numbering system on a CD-ROM product. A court of appeals ruled that the use of West's pagination was not protectible and in any case, the page citation copying was permitted as a fair use. As a result of this ruling, you are free to copy a publisher's reproduction of court decisions and page numbering. (Matthew Bender &#38; Co. v. West Publishing Co., 158 F.3d 693 (2d Cir. 1998). But see also West Publishing Company v. Mead Data, 799 F.2d 1219 (1986).) Aus: Getting Permission: How to License &#38; Clear Copyrighted Materials Online &#38; Off, 2nd edition, by Richard Stim, ch. 8. 