[memefrog]

LexisNexis does not just "charge people access to content which the parent company didn't generate". I could access most legislation through the government legislation website that shows the current version of every piece of legislation. I could piece together legislative history by looking through all the various amendments over the years compared to the originally enacted Acts. OR, I could look at LexisNexis, who have done all that work already and also have notes for pretty much every provision linking all that data together with academic and judicial commentary, major cases on those provisions, etc.

Similarly, I can look up unreported senior courts cases on the 'Judicial Decisions Online' section of the courts of New Zealand website, for free. But what about the notes written by experienced barristers in the law reports? What about the database cataloguing every judgment that has referred to every other judgment, giving an indication of whether the judgment is still good law?

It seems very popular these days to crap on businesses like LexisNexis and it does sometimes feel like they're taking the mickey given their prices and the terrible web interface to their databases. The fact you can't even 'open in new tab' properly is infuriating. But they're not just selling access to something that ought to be free, as many people seem to like to claim. They provide a lot more than just the raw judgments and statutes.