Too much information
Here's a major screwup in federal court in Alabama -- criminal investigation records that were supposed to be sealed instead got posted to the courts' Pacer website, for all the world to see. One part of the news account that doesn't sound right is the assertion that the authorities don't know who might have viewed the documents in question. Pacer is a pay service, and access to documents is closely metered.
| Posted at 8:46 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (5)
And unless the computer server was designed by/for Portland, all access is logged. Just as you can now check my IP of this post!
Posted by dman | April 26, 2011 9:14 AM
PACER can only log the original views on the site. If the PACER user saved them on a hard drive and emailed them out to others or posted them on the web, the trail of who viewed them would be lost.
Posted by none | April 26, 2011 10:47 AM
I think one of the articles I read on this said that the docs were in an unmetered part of PACER. So there are certain docs the circuit does not charge for, or likely monitor access to.
Posted by Kent Mulder | April 26, 2011 10:58 AM
Or, if they were downloaded from PACER by a user with the most excellent RECAP plugin. This is essentially napster for lawyers - it lets other people download the PACER documents free, once any one person has paid. Highly recommended.
Posted by UO Matters | April 26, 2011 1:38 PM
Sorry, forgot to add link:
https://www.recapthelaw.org/about/
Let me add that, unlike napster, RECAP does not steal bread from starving musicians.
Posted by UO Matters | April 26, 2011 1:42 PM