I'll never understand the whining over PACER's fees. Computers and servers cost money, and the fees for PACER rarely even hit my radar. Still, it is obnoxious that I've had to pay an entire sixteen cents thrice today after having run the same search for the Aleynikov case. Why can't I save myself the sixpence and time of running a search on my coffee breaks?
The solution is RECAP. Details here:
What does RECAP do?
RECAP is an extension (or “add on”) for the Firefox web browser that improves the PACER experience while helping PACER users build a free and open repository of public court records. RECAP users automatically donate the documents they purchase from PACER into a public repository hosted by the Internet Archive. And RECAP saves users money by alerting them when a document they are searching for is already available from this repository. RECAP also makes other enhancements to the PACER experience, including more user-friendly file names.
There are privacy issues with RECAP. Previously, it took some level of sophsitication to check PACER for criminal recrods. If people download all of PACER, and then index that on some server: Anyone using Google will be obtain to obtain information that many would prefer to keep public.
Yet isn't is unfair that only people with specialized knowledge and skills have been able to check in on people on PACER? Wouldn't it be nice to know that someone you're about to date, or hire, or do a business deal with - was convicted of a federal crime?
If you were born into the right family, you'd hire a private investigator to run a Lexis-Nexis search on people. If you were a lawyer, you'd do the search yourself. If you were just the hoi polli, no information for you!
Information control is ultimately about the elites - People Who Know Better - oppressing the masses. RECAP is the anti-elite. Soon, everyone will have access to the same information. Which doesn't mean there won't be an uncomfortable transition as our privacy norms change.
