Ep 161: Carl Malamud on His Three-Plus Decades of Working to Free the Law

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">No one has worked harder, worked longer or had more success at the cause of making government information accessible to the public than</span> <a href= "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Malamud"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Carl Malamud</span></a> <span style= "font-weight: 400;">and his organization</span> <a href= "https://public.resource.org/"><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Public.Resource.Org</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">. From putting the SEC’s EDGAR database online in 1993 – effectively shaming the SEC into putting it online itself two years later – to his 2020 U.S. Supreme Court victory defeating the state of Georgia’s claim of copyright in its official legislative code, to his 2022 federal court win allowing him to publish private-industry technical standards that are incorporated by reference into thousands of federal, state and local laws, Malamud has devoted his career to freeing the law. </span></p> <p> </p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">On this episode of LawNext, Malamud joins host Bob Ambrogi to recap some of the significant milestones of his more-than 30-years of battling government bureaucracies. Among the topics they discuss: how his 1993 publication of the SEC’s EDGAR database on the Internet became a turning point for government information online; how his work with Aaron Swartz – the younger computer programmer who later killed himself after being indicted by the U.S. attorney – and other to open access to PACER documents led to creation of the RECAP database of free PACER filings; how his publication of Georgia’s official legislative code led to a watershed Supreme Court ruling; and why, in recent years, he has turned his attention to India, of which he said, “If there is to be a revolution in access to knowledge, it has to be in India.” </span></p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Thank You To Our Sponsors</strong></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">This episode of LawNext is generously made possible by our sponsors. We appreciate their s