Talk:Westlaw/Archives/2016

Untitled

I'm unconvinced at the reasoning behind the latest amendment. According to that prolific though slightly unreliable source knowm as Wikipedia, the internet began some time before the late 1980s:

"On 1 January 1983, the ARPANET changed its core networking protocols from NCP to TCP/IP, marking the start of the Internet as we know it today."

Robin Patterson 04:18, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

The edit which I reworded claimed that the WWW existed in the late 80s. It didn't, the first usable web browser wasn't released until 1992 or 1993. Remember that the WWW is not the same as the Internet, it's a specific application of the Internet. As you mention, the Internet did exist in the late 80s but it was rarely used for commercial purposes - it was mainly academic. I don't know this for sure, but I doubt that either online system from Westlaw or LexisNexis was based on the Internet. It's more likely that they were based on a dialup network such as Telenet or an online service like Compuserve. Rhobite 04:39, Feb 21, 2005 (UTC)

The case was West Pub. Co. v. Mead Data Cent., Inc. 1986 (799 F.2d 1219; cert denied). The case did not mention internet or any particular network. In the late 1980s, people could remote login the database using telnet protocol. They could also dialup the mainframe. Customers outside the U.S. could use offline CD-ROMs. -- Toytoy 07:54, Feb 21, 2005 (UTC)

I'm not an expert on Westlaw, otherwise I'd make this edit myself, but... this article gives the impression that Westlaw is used only in the United States, which, as a law student in the UK, I can definitively say is not true. TomPhil 17:42, 14 November 2005 (UTC)