As noted a while back on The Invent Blog:
Free the cases! http://bulk.resource.org [wayback version] is a project where they are creating a free database of federal case law decisions. Bob Ambrogi notes it already has 1,800,000 pages of case law. Cases you can download for free:
Google also now provides a way to search cases; my PatentLawPractice–IP and Patent Links wiki collects these and other useful online case databases.
Public.Resource.Org has a “Law.Gov” project: “A Proposed Distributed Repository of All Primary Legal Materials of the United States.” Its admirable goal is:
Law.Gov is an idea, an idea that the primary legal materials of the United States should be readily available to all, and that governmental institutions should make these materials available in bulk as distributed, authenticated, well-formatted data. To make this idea a reality, a series of workshops were held throughout the country, resulting in a consensus on 10 core principles.
Browsing around on the bulk.resource.org pages (specifically here), I found two interesting letters: a Request for Clarification [wayback] (Aug. 14, 2007) from Public.Resource.Org Inc., to Thomson/West, asking about the extent of West’s copyright in its caselaw reporters, and what portion was public domain; and Response to Request for Clarification [wayback] (Aug. 28, 2007), Thomson’s reply (Thomson is one of my own new publishers, incidentally, for two of the legal treatises I edit, Digest of Commercial Laws of the World, and Trademark Practice and Forms).
You must log in to post a comment. Log in now.