Democracy in the Dark?

scubacuda writes "Melissa Bar has written an insightful article on how Westlaw and Lexis Nexis restrict public access to case law databases. She writes, '[T]he courts and the court's words belong to us. In more ways than one, the American people have already paid for the case law produced by our courts. Commercial vendors must not be allowed to highjack our law or dictate who may have access to it. By refusing to allow public libraries to purchase electronic subscriptions that can serve their patrons, Westlaw and LexisNexis are closing the door on information.' Individually purchasing the documents over credit card is incredibly expensive, making it virtually inaccessible to most library patrons."

Comments

Solution...

[argoff]

Just have one library purchase the documents and make coppies for everyone else anonymously over a p2p network.

Re:Sooo...

[Arcturax]

Remember that /. article about how a publically funded website of Scientific journals was shut down so companies can sell our taxpayer funded data back to us?

If we could have science data online, why not a tax payer funded legal site?

Of course since they killed the science one, you can bet that they won't create a law one either, at least not until we get someone with half a brain back into the presidency who will restore the science database and create a legal one for the public good, which is what our tax payer money should be going to instead of waging war on Iraq to loot their oil so we can drive our SUV's.