[rayiner]

Case law is free as in beer and free as in speech.

What isn't free is all the work Lexis Nexis and West Law do to edit, cross-reference, index, etc, cases. As a practical matter, these additional features are indispensable, so the text of the opinions alone is of relatively less value.

[btilly]

Give Google access to all of the raw documents, and they will gladly cross-reference, index, etc all of the cases. I'd be willing to bet money that they will make it available for free, and wouldn't be surprised if they do a better job than Lexis Nexis or West Law do.

The one thing that Google likely wouldn't do is edit. But that's because they can't do that by algorithm.

[snambi]

this is probably true. provide access someone will gladly cross-reference, index and make it available.

[nathan_long]

>> What isn't free is all the work Lexis Nexis and West Law do to edit, cross-reference, index, etc, cases.

Sure. But they are paid with public dollars to do this work, and so are effectively working for the public. Therefore, their contract should state that their work must be made public.

Really, it shouldn't matter to them whether they get the right to sell copies or get paid more up front for the work; they make money either way. But it matters for democracy.