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Eldred Transcript, Bookmobile Experience
Patrick writes "The transcript of the oral arguments in Eldred v. Ashcroft is now online." Such exciting lines as: "CHIEF JUSTICE REHNQUIST: Well, but you want more than that. You want the right to copy verbatim other people's books, don't you?". See previous stories about the oral arguments and Lessig's thoughts on them. chromatic writes "The O'Reilly Network has just published Richard Koman's Lessons from the Internet Bookmobile about his travels with Brewster Kahle to Eldred v. Ashcroft. I particularly like how he describes the universal positive reception."
Members of the public are not allowed to record the arguments. or even to take notes. Accredited journalists are allowed a bit more leeway, but only Alderson Reporting is allowed to transcribe or record.
Moreover, Alderson gets a short period of exclusivity before the transcripts are posted to the supreme court website. Before this, a copy is deposited in the Supreme Court Library, but readers are not allowed to copy the document. You can purchase transcripts for ~$150 ($2.85/page?), but Alderson demands permission for all excerpting. ("Permission routinely granted for short excerpts.")
I think that the copies extant are probably derived from the appellants copy. I'm not sure whether Alderson plans to sue...
The Audio recording will not be available until late 2003.