On Jun 15, 2007, at 1:29 AM, Ray Saintonge wrote:
Court documents are in the public domain in many
jurisdiction, this
would include pleadings of all sorts as well as decisions of judges.
Realistically, only the decisions tend to be regularly reported.
Court
decisions are themselves a part of the law in that they provide a body
of precedents to be used in future decisions. They provide the
reasoning that is essential to the law. They are a significant factor
in attaining an accountable judicial system in a free and open
society.
I understand what caselaw is, Ray. My question was related to the
lack of exclusionary criteria in Wikisource. But I think that there
is nothing we can do in that regard, as Wikisource collects free
texts, and court orders and decisions are indeed in the public
domain in many jurisdictions.
As you said, we could address any specific cases on the linking from
WP, not giving a special treatment to Wikisource vs the text of the
same court order in
caselaw.com, for example. The fact that it is in
Wikisource does not mean that we *have* to link to it, if deemed
inappropriate for a BLP.
-- Jossi