The complaint of Inslaw Inc against the very people who above all should be above such things, the US Justice Department, continues to rumble, and Reuter reports from Washington that the House Judiciary Committee has adopted a staff report accusing Justice Department officials of stealing Inslaw’s software, and called for an independent counsel to investigate the case: Inslaw’s owners, William and Nancy Hamilton, have been fighting the Department in court for nearly a decade over rights to their Promis program to track cases and criminals – The report concludes that high-level Department of Justice officials deliberately ignored Inslaw’s proprietary rights in the enhanced version of Promis and misappropriated this software for use at locations not covered under contract with the company, Committee chairman Jack Brooks said; The evidence received by the committee during its investigation clearly raises serious concerns about the possibility that a high-level conspiracy against Inslaw did exist and that great efforts have been expended by the department to block any outside investigation into the matter; the report also recommended Inslaw be compensated for the damage it suffered; the case attracted national attention last year when Joseph Casolaro, a freelance writer working on the case, was found dead in a West Virginia motel – officials ruled he committed suicide but some friends and relatives said they feared he may have been murdered; Inslaw got a $9.6m contract in 1982 for the Promis program and the Hamiltons allege that the Justice Department later used an enhanced versionwithout paying royalties; the dispute forced it into bankruptcy.
