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340:. For each PACER document, the software will first check if it has already been uploaded by another user. If no free version exists and the user purchases the document from PACER, it will automatically upload a copy to the RECAP server, thereby building the database. The original RECAP implementation uploaded documents to the
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Some courts have acknowledged RECAP's free distribution of documents. A small handful of PACER users receive fee-exempt access (fee waivers are granted on a district-by-district basis), and a condition of the fee waiver generally requires that fee exempt users not further distribute documents they
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that provides free access to primary legal materials, develops legal research tools, and supports academic research on legal corpora. Free Law
Project has several initiatives that collect and share legal information, including the largest collection of American
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website with court dockets, 900,000 minutes of oral argument recordings, more than eight thousand judges, and more than three million opinions. All of the opinions on Court
Listener are interlinked by a citator, and the graph of citations is available via an
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this guy out in
Oakland .. works for this nonprofit called the Free Law Project .. project going on for several years, to obtain from the administrative office of the courts, every financial disclosure for every federal judge, and digitize
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However, the automated downloading triggered a government investigation. No criminal charges were filed, because PACER had provided lawful access and the documents copied were in the public domain, and the case was closed.
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Swartz downloaded 2.7 million documents, all public domain, representing less than 1 percent of the documents in PACER. These public domain documents were later uploaded to RECAP and made available to the public for free.
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268:, which allows users to automatically search for free copies of documents during a search in the fee-based online US legal database PACER, creating a free alternative database at the
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provides free access to federal court documents that someone has already purchased for RECAP / CourtListener and invites users to purchase a copy of others for CourtListener / RECAP.
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344:; as of late 2017, the Free Law Project version now uploads documents to the Free Law Project, with a promise to mirror that data to the Internet Archive on a quarterly basis.
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The database contains information about more than sixteen thousand state and federal judges, making it a treasure trove for those wishing to do judicial analytics.
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is software which allows users to automatically search for free copies of documents during a search in the fee-based online U.S. federal court document database
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The Free Law
Project, a new California nonprofit, launched Tuesday and will provide free and easy access to legal material and research for anyone to download.
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receive under the waiver, pursuant to
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906:"Welcome to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts"
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562:"Free Law Project provides access to legal materials and research for public"
504:"Milestone: CourtListener has 365 Days of Continuous Oral Argument Listening"
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set up an automatic download from an official library entry point to PACER.
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Free Law
Project was founded in 2013 by Michael Lissner and Brian Carver.
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PACER continued charging per page fees after the introduction of RECAP.
854:"The inside story of Aaron Swartz's campaign to liberate court filings"
675:"Announcing a New Open Database of Court Information, IDs, and Parsers"
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Coulter Jones; James V. Grimaldi; Joe
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page: "fee exempt PACER users must refrain from the use of RECAP".
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Public.Resource.Org § Access to United States legal resources
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706:. Center for Information Technology Policy. 2013. Archived from
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821:"FBI Investigated Coder for Liberating Paywalled Court Records"
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United States
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477:"How the Journal Found Judges' Violations of Law on Conflicts"
982:
700:"RECAP Documents Now More Searchable Via Internet Archive"
783:
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Free Law
Project has a number of initiatives, including:
284:, which provides information about more than 400 legal
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software project to archive and host court documents.
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Non-profit organizations based in the United States
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880:"A Complete Chronology of PACER Fees and Policies"
784:"RECAP Project — Turning PACER Around Since 2009"
758:"Plug-in opens up federal courts, with your help"
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308:PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records)
368:District Court for the District of Massachusetts
161:Michael Lissner, Brian Carver, Ansel Halliburton
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1032:Legal organizations based in the United States
239:cases regarding violations by federal judges.
933:"I Read Court Documents for Fun. Hear Me Out"
527:"The Federal Law That 138 Judges Have Broken"
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912:. Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts
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350:Prior to the creation of RECAP, activist
1052:2009 establishments in the United States
312:Center for Information Technology Policy
799:"The Next Version of RECAP is Now Live"
797:Lissner, Michae l (November 13, 2017).
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27:Free legal research tools and database
1042:Online companies of the United States
732:Johnson, Bobbie (November 11, 2009).
560:Taylor A. Vega (September 29, 2013).
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852:Lee, Timothy B. (February 8, 2013).
734:"Recap: cracking open US courtrooms"
370:display a prominent reminder on its
878:Lissner, Michael (April 13, 2017).
886:from the original on March 6, 2018
525:Kate Linebaugh (October 1, 2021).
257:, which provides a searchable and
213:from 200 United States courts and
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1047:Organizations established in 2013
931:Tarpley Hitt (December 1, 2020).
819:Singel, Ryan (October 5, 2009).
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642:"Judge and Disclosure Database"
983:RECAP The Law Project homepage
423:Justin Rau (October 5, 2021).
137:CourtListener, RECAP, Bots.law
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69:Michael Lissner, Brian Carver
988:Judge and Appointer Database
829:. Condé Nast. Archived from
276:Judge and Appointer Database
1017:Free Access to Law Movement
399:Free Access to Law Movement
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1022:Free Firefox WebExtensions
209:, daily collection of new
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1027:Google Chrome extensions
325:RECAP is available as a
1012:American legal websites
532:The Wall Street Journal
482:The Wall Street Journal
334:Google Chrome extension
232:The Wall Street Journal
155:Board of directors
567:The Daily Californian
430:The Los Angeles Times
282:Database of Reporters
221:, and user-generated
215:administrative bodies
110:Registration no.
44:Free Law Project Logo
237:conflict of interest
235:expose 138 cases of
229:. Their data helped
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652:on January 22, 2024
272:and Court Listener.
207:oral argument audio
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938:The New York Times
782:Free Law Project.
452:"Free Law Project"
425:"Crime and Courts"
316:Harvard University
143:Executive Director
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246:Initiatives
129:Oakland, CA
1006:Categories
606:Q117745639
410:References
105:46-3342480
100:Tax ID no.
78:Emeryville
74:Founded at
61:2013-09-24
742:. London.
681:March 17,
656:March 14,
292:Courts-DB
286:reporters
225:citation
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890:March 5,
884:Archived
804:March 5,
629:Q7276289
625:Wikidata
602:Wikidata
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393:See also
193:federal
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863:May 31,
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200:-based
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