Judiciary Seeks Public Comment on Internet Access to Court Documents
November 15, 2000 3:25 PM Subscribe
Judiciary Seeks Public Comment on Internet Access to Court Documents "As federal courts make the transition from paper to electronic case files, the Judicial Conference of the United States is studying the privacy and security implications of vastly wider public access to court documents via the Internet. Public comment is sought."
Further down they tell you that it'll cost 7 cents a page, even online. From the same folks who waited years to put up Supreme Court dockets and opinions on the official site.
Seven cents a page, though? That's just a made-up number. And what about re-post rights?
posted by Mo Nickels at 12:31 AM on November 16, 2000
posted by Mo Nickels at 12:31 AM on November 16, 2000
Government documents are not copyrightable. Anyone can repost them.
posted by dhartung at 7:58 AM on November 16, 2000
posted by dhartung at 7:58 AM on November 16, 2000
If you were to make and maintain a searchable archive of court filings, it would probably cost you more than 7 cents per page per retrieval to operate, assuming that the you value the time and effort you would put to the project.
It's not about ownership, it's about costs of custodianship and operations...
posted by MattD at 8:04 AM on November 16, 2000
It's not about ownership, it's about costs of custodianship and operations...
posted by MattD at 8:04 AM on November 16, 2000
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Although, eventually, electronic filing of documents may lower these costs, for at least a few years, total headcounts and expenses related to document storage and retrieval won't decline.
Who better to pay: the person requesting the documents, or the taxpayers at large? I suggest the former.
posted by MattD at 4:25 PM on November 15, 2000