Access to federal court records gets less free
I had always hoped that PACER – which I hear runs a surplus anyway – would trend downward in price as the cost of delivering electronic access decreases. Instead comes the news that the price will rise by 25%, from 8 to 10 cents per page.
Extending mandatory open access beyond the NIH
The NIH requires free, public access to research they fund. Now the Office of Science and Technology Policy is considering extending the policy to other federal agencies that fund academic research.
Google Books adds open-standard downloads
For anyone using any kind of electronic reader — including a regular computer — this addition to Google Books may well prove quite useful: EPUB as a download format.
Should there be no copyright for academic publications?
Worth reading and considering is a new draft article by Professor Steven Shavell that proposes abolishing copyright on academic works.
New law journal launches that focuses on open source
There’s a new law journal in town: “The International Free and Open Source Software Law Review (IFOSS L. Rev.) is a collaborative legal publication aiming to increase knowledge and understanding among lawyers about Free and Open Source Software issues. Topics covered include copyright, licence implementation, licence interpretation, software patents, open standards, case law and statutory changes.”
Researchers typically forbidden from sharing own work
Ed Kohler points us to a long, but fascinating blog post, by Stuart Shieber, a CS professor at Harvard, discussing the somewhat ridiculous copyright situation that many academics deal with in trying to promote their own works. I’ve heard similar stories from other professors I know, but this one is worth reading. Shieber points out the importance of […]
Is "free" a potentially workable business model for legal services?
Lawyers are safer than musicians in that distribution of legal knowledge is harder — but nonetheless technology will revolutionize legal services, and law firms that adapt to the ideas behind “free” as a business model will survive and prosper — those that fail to adapt will not.
Texas effectively denies open access to state law
A recent change to the Texas Rule of Appellate Procedure gives “memorandum” opinions full precedential value — but those opinions are currently only accessible through the very expensive Westlaw or LexisNexis.
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