Ray Van Eng (10/11/96)
Seems like given a chance, most people would want to make a little money off O.J. Simpson who was acquitted last year of the double murder of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. Now that Simpson's wrongful death suit brought on by the Browns' and Goldmans' family is underway, the court stenographer for the civil trail wants to have her cake and eat it too because of the huge media attention on the O.J. saga. Court reporter Paula Dickson won the right to her transcripts and were able to extract a $1.30 per page fee from Court TV and CNN in return for posting the material on their world wide web sites. The two TV networks are also required to postpone the uploading of each day's transcript by 24 hours so as to give a chance for other news media groups to purchase the transcripts from Dickson. Dickson also had her own web page where she would advertise her transcripts which becomes available within 6 hours at the end of the day's proceedings. Dickson's transcripts posted on an electronic media such as the Internet would likely receive more attention since Hiroshi Fujisaki, the L.A. Superior Court judge has banned the use of cameras in the courtroom for the civil case. Although CNN and Court TV have agreed to comply with the court's ruling, they publicly stated that they do not agree with Dickson's interpretation and refereed to it as unconstitutional. In real dollar terms, Dickson's transcript costs much less than the multi-million book and movie deals and special appearances that all those associated with the trial are getting, including Brian "Kato" Kaelin, Johnnie Cochran, Robert Shapiro, Faye Resnick, Marcia Clark, Christopher Darden, Mark Fuhrman and countless other characters. |
