good news via the govtrack mailing list

Carl Malamud of public.resource.org, with funding from a bunch of places including a small bit from GovTrack’s ad profits, announced his intention to purchase from the Government Printing Office documents they produce in the course of their statutory obligations and then have the nerve to sell back to the public at prohibitive prices. The document to be purchased is the Code of Federal Regulations, the component of federal law created by executive branch agencies, in electronic form. Once obtained, it will be posted openly/freely online.

More here: http://public.resource.org/gpo.gov/index.html

And Carl’s letter to the GPO:
http://public.resource.org/gpo.gov/the_honorable.html

It’s pretty sad that it has to come to this…but it’s also pretty awesome that it’s happening.