The D.C. Bar and Avvo, a legal search Web site, are engaged in a battle over the Bar’s member information. The D.C. Bar claims Avvo is violating the Bar's terms of use by downloading member information and posting it on their own site. Avvo confirms it is downloading member information but says it has done nothing wrong.
Last month, Timothy Webster of Sidley Austin's D.C. Office, who is serving as the D.C. Bar's counsel, wrote a letter to Joshua King, Avvo's vice president of business development and general counsel, telling Avvo to "cease and desist" downloading Bar member information from the D.C. Bar Web site.
"I called counsel back, and we had an amicable conversation," King says. "But, I said, we clearly are not going to comply, and are clearly not going deprive the public of a service they have rightful access to."
D.C. Bar spokesperson Cynthia Kuhn says: "This has nothing to do with restricting public access.”
Kuhn says the Bar’s site is updated daily when members are disciplined, move, or even die. King says Avvo updates its site “periodically,” or once or twice a year, and if it is notified of a change. The infrequent updates on Avvo's site means accurate member information is not always displayed, according to Kuhn.
Kuhn also says the terms of use for the Bar's site have been posted since its launch, and prohibit downloading information and using it in the way Avvo is doing. King disagrees claiming there were no terms of use posted when it downloaded the data off the Bar's site, and the terms of use are “overreaching and unenforceable.” A Legal Times search of an Internet historical database reveals the D.C. Bar had the exact same terms of use in place under a copyright link on the D.C. Bar Web site as far back as Feb. 29, 2000 - about seven years before Avvo's launch. When alerted to Legal Times’ finding, King says it’s “unusual” and “no one would expect” to find terms of use under a copyright agreement link. The D.C. Bar’s Web site only recently posted the terms under a separate “Restrictions on Use” link.
King says convincing some state bar associations to turn over member information has proven more difficult than others. For instance the state bars in Florida, Texas, North Carolina, and Maryland all provide Avvo with disks of the names of its members. He adds that by downloading from the Bar's site, Avvo is not hindering the Web site and has offered to stop if the D.C. Bar would voluntarily turn over the information.
We've also invited the DC Bar to provide the information to Avvo directly - we'd be delighted if they were to provide us with daily updates or a data feed so that the data on the Avvo site could be as up-to-date as that maintained by the DC Bar.
Josh King
Avvo, Inc.
Posted by: Josh King | February 25, 2009 at 02:09 PM