The legal battle that threatens to keep Steven Spielberg's slavery film, Amistad, from opening next week moves to the Internet. The Legal Information Institute (LII) at Cornell University has devoted a world wide web site to the case, in which one of Hollywood's major players is accused of plagiarism by an award-winning author.

The web site premiered this morning (Dec. 5) and is located at http://www.law.cornell.edu/amistad/.

"The Internet provides us with the best forums for keeping the public informed on fast-breaking cases, such as this one," said Michael Peil, a postdoctoral associate with the Cornell Law School. "While our site intends to keep readers up-to-date on all court activity, we also want to give them a generous helping of background information so they can understand the case more fully."

Author Barbara Chase-Riboud has filed a $10 million copyright infringement suit against Spielberg's production company, Dreamworks SKG, claiming that the film uses characters, incidents and relationships from her book, Echo of Lions. She seeks a preliminary injunction to block the film's Dec. 10 opening. The producers have countered, claiming that no one owns a copyright to history. A judge will decide Monday, Dec. 8, whether to grant a preliminary injunction against Amistad's opening.

The Cornell web site contains biographical information on the key players involved in the suit, along with summaries of the chief arguments of both sides.

"We also are in contact with representatives of Dreamworks and of Ms. Chase-Riboud to obtain other documents in the case, as well as statements and press releases from them," Peil said. "These will be fully accessible on the web site."

Also contained on the web site is background information on the Amistad revolt of 1839 and the ensuing U.S. Supreme Court case, salvage law and its development, and a generous compilation of key copyright law rulings. A click on related links will take one to various web sites related to the movie.

Peil said as soon as the case is resolved, whether it be a settlement between parties or a decision on whether to grant a preliminary injunction, the LII web site will post the information.

"The LII has become a viable source of news for individuals who want to examine legal issues in more detail than can be found from the write-up in their local newspaper," Peil said. "It's evident from the online traffic we get at the institute that the public is very much interested in these cases and the legal issues at stake."

The LII was established at Cornell in 1992. LII offers a collection of recent and historic Supreme Court decisions, hypertext versions of the full U.S. Code, U.S. Constitution, Federal Rules of Evidence and Civil Procedure, recent opinions of the New York State Court of Appeals and commentary on the opinions from the liibulletin-ny, an email service for attorneys and other important legal materials, from federal, state, foreign and international sources.