FREE GOVT DOCS

Alvin Podboy, director of library systems at Cleveland's Baker Hostetler, takes on the government in his annual essay chronicling the concerns of librarians, in the July issue of Law Technology News.

This year's "Liberate U.S." article ponders whether government legal files should "belong" to the people, as Law.gov enthusiasts argue. Podboy profiles Law.gov efforts to put these documents into the public domain via free, easily accessible websites.

California technologist and crusader Carl Malamud, who runs public.resource.org, is the driving force behind this movement, notes Podboy. Malamud has successfully persuaded the state of Oregon to not assert copyright over its legislative statutes, and has challenged California's copyright claims by publishing criminal, building, and plumbing codes online.