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Open Source Effort To Codify America's "Operating System" Online

Posted by Soulskill on from the does-america-run-linux dept.

Rubinstien writes "O'Reilly Radar is reporting on an effort to produce Law.gov, 'America's Operating System, Open Source.' The group Public.Resource.Org seeks to 'create a solid business plan, technical specs, and enabling legislation for the federal government to create Law.gov. [They] envision Law.gov as a distributed, open source, authenticated registry and repository of all primary legal materials in the United States.' According to its new website, 'Law.gov would be similar to Data.gov, providing bulk data and feeds to commercial, non-commercial, and governmental organizations wishing to build web sites, operate legal information services, or otherwise use the raw materials of our democracy.'"

4 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. opensecrets.org, well almost by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    Anyone got an RSS feed for bribes accepted per politician?

    I don't know of one, but I can see an Atom feed of headlines from a site that also has lists of the top contributors to reelection campaigns of representatives like Rep. Boner.

  2. Code by Lawrence Lessig by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    What does open access to laws have to do with operating systems or open source?

    There's a reason why they call it a "legal code", and not just because of Dr. Lessig's book.

    Sounds like an attempt to ride the Linux hype wave, and it seems to be succeeding so far.

    "Law like a free software project" would at least require a patch to the patent code to make it more efficient at rejecting obvious inventions.

  3. References in low to propietary standards by MountainLogic · · Score: 4, Informative

    In many technical areas, such as building codes, the law will say something like, "The city of Nowhere adopts in whole the International Building Code of 2007." The problem is that the International Building Code and most other codes are written and copyrighted by private organization that charge lots of money for a copy.

  4. Re:Lexis and Westlaw? by mhatle · · Score: 3, Informative

    I agree.. Westlaw/Lexis information includes history context, legal analysis, links to secondary (court cases) sources that interpret the law, and as well as if the law is in the process of being appealed as unconstitutional or whatever.

    This is what Westlaw and Lexis sell to lawyers, the actual content of the law itself is something required in order for the money making part to exist.