This may be of interest to some here, given that Bailii's funding woes
have previously been a matter of discussion:
http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/information_provided_to_bailii_f
It answers a few of the questions as to why Bailii take the line they do
with permitting reuse of the data (specifically, they appear to be
prohibited from doing so by the DoJ), but it also raises others - such
as how, if they're being paid by the DoJ to put the stuff on the
website, they can really be that short of money. I could do what Bailii
are doing for much less than the DoJ are paying them. So, I reckon,
could MySociety.
I'm aware of the Judgmentals project (and have a spin-off side-project
of my own) to make case law more widely available in a more useful
format than Bailii, but the more I think about it the more I'm coming to
the conclusion that what's really needed here is for Bailii to get some
help from people who really "get" public information web publishing,
rather than them just throwing money into a bottomless pit and other
people trying to reverse-engineer it into something useful. Or,
alternatively, for another organisation to tender for the contract with
the DoJ when it comes up for renewal next year. Either way, the inherent
weaknesses of Bailii really need to be fixed at source.
Mark
--
Sent from my Babbage Difference Engine
http://mark.goodge.co.uk
http://www.ratemysupermarket.com
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