Sort of. They are not restricted by copyright, as I understand it, but, like uncopyrightable trade secrets inside companies, they are not freely available. Obtaining them from the original source (the courts) costs money.
Think of it like a company selling GNU software. There's nothing prohibiting that, even though once someone has it, they are free to redistribute it for free.
The claim that the docs were worth 1.5 million dollars is based on the arbitrary price set for access to PACER, not any underlying value of the documents.
Comments
Sort of. They are not restricted by copyright, as I understand it, but, like uncopyrightable trade secrets inside companies, they are not freely available. Obtaining them from the original source (the courts) costs money.
Think of it like a company selling GNU software. There's nothing prohibiting that, even though once someone has it, they are free to redistribute it for free.
The claim that the docs were worth 1.5 million dollars is based on the arbitrary price set for access to PACER, not any underlying value of the documents.