If you've never heard of public.resource.org, it might be something to keep an eye on.
Carl Malamud's idea for the website is to pressure government officials to post online legal rulings, building codes and other legal documents in an accessible format. It's a nonprofit group that attempts to remedy the fact that online legal databases are inconsistent, difficult to search, and oftentimes expensive.
Malamud is a recent recipient of a $2 million Google grant for this idea. On Friday, Google awarded $10 million to five organizations for "ideas to change the world."
This isn't the first time that Malamud has been noticed. In 1994, he pushed the SEC to post corporate filings online; in 2008, he helped Oregon to stop claiming copyright over its laws. He's now doing the same with California's copyrights over the California Code. Malamud has also gained renown for asking lawyers to donate their purchased PACER documents and then bundling them into free ZIP files hosted on his website. In addition to other court decisions, these files completely cover decisions from federal appeals courts made over the last 50 years.
According to the law.gov portion of his website, he wants to publish primary legal materials so that they're readily available to the public to encourage understanding, research, and innovation in the legal information market.
This seems like an excellent idea to me. Online databases of court rulings, filings, and statutes could help to make the law more easily available. What's currently posted online varies by municipality in every state. Without using expensive sources like Lexis, online databases are usually pretty inconsistent and clunky.
For more information on Malamud and the Google grant, see PressDemocrat and Wired.com.
