The USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review takes a good look at the competing perspectives on the viability of online court records in this article by Rebecca Fairly Raney. The article highlights activities in California, and profiles the perspectives of organizations like the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. It also points to efforts in Oklahoma to make all court dockets avialable online for free.

The 2003 General Assembly of the State of Virginia has passed a bill [HB 2426] intended to regulate remote access to public land and court records through the Internet. Among the interesting details: court and county clerks can refuse to record an instrument containing a social security number; documents containing sensitive information cannot be posted; court clerks will be required to offer free subscription access; the subscription appllication process must include a sworn statement of the identity, home or business address, nationality, and purpose in applying for access.

This article by Michael Looney in the March Edition Syllabus Magazine highlights the need for digital archive standards in higher education. I've written before about joint efforts underway to develop a common digital archive standard, called PDF-A. Mr. Looney, who is a senior director at Adobe Systems, Inc., explains the effort as follows:

PDF/A proponents (a working group comprised of industry, government, and academic institutions working with AIIM and NPES) are aiming to have PDF/A officially recognized by the International Standards Organization (of ISO 9000 fame) within approximately 18 months. Their efforts are directed at solving a serious and increasingly urgent problem. The lack of a recognized and accepted electronic standard for records preservation?particularly as new generations of hardware and software have made previous digital technology obsolete?has led to the loss of significant amounts of valuable information over the past several decades. Military files from the Vietnam War, records from the Viking Mars Mission, Census Bureau data and land use records have been lost due to the inability to read data formats and the deterioration of magnetic tapes used to store that data.

The list of organizations that mandate or use PDF as a de facto standard is growing to include the U.S. Courts, the National Science Foundation for grant submission, and the Food and Drug Administration for drug submissions. A common PDF/A standard will give librarians and educators the confidence that their records could be readily accessed far into the future.

From the nourishing thicket of sources in my news aggregator this week:

• Chas Rich has the scoop on a new resolution adopted by the Ohio Senate (SJR 7). The bill calls for a vote this November as to whether Ohio Supreme Court Justices should continue to be elected by direct popular vote [Ernie the Attorney]
• Blawg: Louisiana Supreme Court Decisions
  Louisiana Legal indexes and annotates new court decisions from Louisiana Supreme Court. Each annotation links to the full-text decision. [TVC Alert]
• Open State

  Open Source Government?. The question then becomes, what kinds of constitutional structures are appropriate to furthering the stated aims in an internetworked, interdependent... [The Obvious?]

  What a good question.

  [Curiouser and curiouser!]

Denise Howell deserves all the praise and more for Bag and Baggage: a fabulous example of legal commentary, wit, and straight-on kundalini rising, complete with an rss feed. Take my advice; visit this site, right now. It's as good as a clean, well-lighted room.

And speaking of influential legal blawgers, happy anniversary Ernie. Here's hoping you have plenty more.