There are a couple of new efforts to place caselaw on publicly-accessible websites and challenge the "duopoloy" of Lexis and Westlaw. This article explains just what Tim Wu (a Columbia law professor) and Carl Malamud (public interest crusader) are up to now with two new websites, AltLaw and public.resource.org. AltLaw has placed the past "10 to 15" years worth of U.S. Supreme Court and U.S. Court of Appeals cases online, and made them keyword searchable. Certainly nothing infringing here, as these opinions seem to have been collected directly from the courts. In a more provocative more, Carl Malamud has taken the step of scanning a Thomson/West microfiche set of federal cases from the 1800's. Of course, because of the age of the cases, no copyright issue arises, but in a letter to Thomson/West, Mr. Malamud declares his intention to copy volumes of the Federal Reporter, Federal Supplement and Federal Appendix, and place the "public domain" portions online. Thomson/West will undoubtedly be watching this one closely, as it has a history of zealously protecting its interests in its court reporters.
