http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2009/04/case-against-pacer.ars?p=1
Excerpt:
The case against PACER: tearing down the courts' paywall
US law says that federal court records are in the public domain. So why do the courts still lock most of their official documents behind a paywall? Ars investigates.
By Timothy B. Lee | Last updated
April 8, 2009 11:30 PM CT
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The importance of public access to the law
Public access to court records might seem like something only lawyers would care about, but James Grimmelmann, a professor at New York Law School, disagrees. "If there are secret laws, it's really hard to say that those are laws in any meaningful sense at all," Grimmelmann says. "There are lots of areas of law in which the statute is very short, but the case law is incredibly long and important." For example, the statutory definition of fair use is only about a paragraph long. To understand how the concept will be applied by the courts, you need to review the hundreds of judicial opinions that have defined its contours.
Grimmelmann also points out that public access to court records keeps courts honest. If court activities are secret, the public will have no way to verify that the court's procedures and decisions are fair and consistent with the law. Public access also promotes equality before the law by ensuring that those of limited means will not be disadvantaged by a lack of access to information......."
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