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A comment on Finishing what Aaron Swartz started with PACER. Parent comment

Re:Finishing what Aaron Swartz started with PACER by rayiner on Tuesday January 22, 2013 @07:50PM (#5100683)
> Lexis and West pay the courts for these documents. They are happy to pay the fees.

Lexis and West get copies of the slip opinions from the court clerks. Which anyone can do by physically going to a court house.

> The courts are happy to get the fees. Do you honestly think Lexis and West would be happier if the docs were free?

Would Lexis/West be happy if the government spent tax money aggregating these documents? I'm sure they wouldn't. Would Google be happy if the government spent tax money indexing the web? I'm sure they wouldn't. That doesn't amount to "rent seeking."

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Re:Finishing what Aaron Swartz started with PACER by rsingel on Tuesday January 22, 2013 @09:53PM (#5101099)
New opinions are online and are now free to download (U.S. District Courts). The appellate courts lag.

Lexis and West pay lots of money to track cases (though cheaper than a citizen pays) and then charges the government for the ability to track a docket.

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/lexisnexis-us-awarde...

Lexis and West have no incentive to want these documents to be free.

And of course the government should spend money to organize the court documents. Unlike the web, these are government documents and the record of government in action.

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