This isn’t the forum for yet more extended discussion on this issue, but Tom Bruce has another valuable post on the Berring-video kerfuffle. (Teasingly addressing only one of three points that “need serious attention from the library profession,” with the other two left unspecified.) In the post, Prof. Bruce describes West as operating in a very distorted market. I think the most critical observation in this regard may be that the combination of bulk availability of ‘raw materials’ and the baseline service levels of free tools like LII’s may ultimately create a much more fertile environment for smaller, entrepreneurial, commercial services than has previously existed — and that this may play a role in the sensitivity Bruce sees West displaying in regards to free/bulk legal information. It is certainly true that West (to a greater degree than large commercial competitors Lexis and Bloomberg) has occupied a privileged position in terms of official legal publication, citation systems, and the certification of authenticity.
Andrew Plumb-Larrick