"Google Scholar provides a US Federal case law database which includes US Supreme Court opinions since 1 US 1 (pre - 1776), Federal Appeals opinions since 1 F 2d 1 (1924+), and many Federal District Court opinions from the Federal Supplement. Opinions from all 50 states are included since 1950. Internal page numbers are included as well, and cases are hyperlinked to other cases within each case. Click on the "Cited by" link to see citations of a particlar opinion in other case law." (http://virtualchase.justia.com/wiki/united-states-federal-ca...)

So very close to "everything."[1] Why don't you ask Google to put up a torrent?

[1] Anything that isn't in there is probably on a library shelf somewhere, and you're welcome to do the same thing Lexis/Westlaw did and scan it in yourself.

The distinction here is between you as the public trying to understand the law, and you as a businessperson trying to make money off of the law. The push to open up PACER is based on ideals about the former, not the latter. (And the former is Google Scholar Legal's Raison d'être.)

Certainly it will be great to have free access to the data in bulk, and that day will come. But from a practical perspective, the barrier to entry as a businessperson in this space is not data. There is enough data at https://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/ to experiment with. And if your experiments work, there are companies that will sell you access to all the data.

I don't know if you can distinguish the two so easily. You can't really expect the government to provide a slick interface or make the data easy to use. It's well outside of the court system's core competency. But if you make the raw data easily accessible then it creates the possibility for entrepreneurs to do something innovative with it, which leads to the public benefit.

Heck, that's pretty much where Lexis and West came from so long ago, but now technology is offering the possibility (at least in theory) to democratize the process so that someone can screw around with the data over a weekend or three and see if they can create something worth following up before they go through the trouble of looking for funding in order to buy data.

I don't know if we're even particularly arguing about anything. Is there really an argument to be made that this data should not be freely available? If "that day will come" then I guess all I'm saying is that sooner is better than later.

There may not be a disagreement: I'm not arguing that this data should be closed. I believe it should be freely available, and should be freely available in bulk form.

My only point was that providing open access to cases so that individuals can learn the law is a solved problem via Google Scholar. Bulk access is not a problem for individuals. I say this as someone who has worked to create better legal research tools for nearly 5 years: the first 2 on a startup that failed, the next 1 at Scholar, and the last 1.5 on a new startup that I believe will finally succeed.

So while the desire to open up PACER - and the attention given to it - is great, I don't think it will have any effect on the future of individual access to law, or to the future of innovation and business in the legal space. I don't think lack of innovation today has anything to do with lack of bulk access today. I think the deficiencies are more a reflection of the fact that innovation in this space is really hard.