Thread by @doctorow

We call a lot of people "internet pioneers," but honestly, @carlmalamud is an internet pioneer - and not just because of his groundbreaking work in streaming media. 1/

If you'd like an unrolled version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2022/04/02/the… 2/

Malamud's most significant contribution is his second act: finding the critical materials that should be universally available and making it so. 3/

In his search for material that should be in the public domain, Malamud - and his tiny nonprofit, Public.Resource - cast a wide net, tackling everything from citizenship test-prep materials to old seed packet art:

pressdemocrat.com/article/news/m… 4/

But his especial focus has always been the law, something that is both obvious (the law must be public) and odd (isn't the law public?). 5/

There are many ways in which "the law" has been enclosed by for-profit entities who argue - against all common sense and common decency - that they must be paid before you can read the law that you must obey. 6/

Generally, Malamud's MO is to identify one of these legal enclosures and just blast away at its paywall, scanning, converting, hyperlinking, formatting, and then posting the laws in question. Unsurprisingly, this tends to land him in court. 7/

Generally, I think Carl's okay with that: every time he goes to court and wins, he makes new law (and he loves the law, after all). 8/

Who sues Malamud? Well, there was the State of #Georgia, which objected to having its laws out there for all to see (they went all the way to the Supreme Court!):

pluralistic.net/2020/04/28/for… 9/

These days, he's tangling with #Wisconsin, where access to the publicly financed manual of jury instructions will cost you $500/year (nothing for a white shoe firm, an infinite sum for, say, an incarcerated person working on an appeal):

pluralistic.net/2020/10/22/the… 10/

As Carl says, the rule of law starts with open law:

pluralistic.net/2020/11/30/sel…

And nowhere is the law more closed than when it comes to public safety codes. 11/

Across the world - but especially in the USA - local and state governments have fallen in love with the idea of "incorporation by reference." 12/

That's when a town council writes in its law books that "The plumbing code of Lower Pigsknuckle shall be version 2.1 of the American Society of Plumbers and Pipefitters Standard Plumbing Manual." 13/

In theory, that's a reasonable way to make safety codes - each town shouldn't have to hire experts to create its own hand-rolled plumbing, electric, fire and other rules. 14/

But the problem comes with the standards bodies - generally adjuncts to or offshoots of industry associations - that develop these codes. 15/

These bodies are nominally nonprofits, but they still charge fortunes - thousands of dollars - to access their documents (some of that money goes to paying for standards development, but their IRS filings reveal that their top officers also skim 6-7 figure salaries). 16/

Which means that if your plumber or electrician assures you that your wiring or pipes are up to code, you have to spend thousands of dollars to check on them, or just take their word for it. 17/

It also means that if you think that these codes are deficient, you have to pay to find out their exact wording, and your neighbors have to pay to figure out if you're onto something before they join with you in pressing the city council to amend them. 18/

Finally, it means that everyone who ever pays for a plumber, an electrician or other tradesperson is subsidizing these societies, because the cost to access the law is passed along in the prices that the trades charge to their customers. 19/

Since 2013, Malamud has been in court, defending himself from many of these organizations, and he has emerged victorious - again. 20/

The DC District Court just ruled against the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), National Fire Protection Association Inc. (NFPA), and American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE), and in Malamud's favor. 21/

The court found that Malamud does not violate these organizations' copyright when he posts the law where others can see it - not paywalled, not regwalled, not DRMed.

eff.org/press/releases… 22/

This is the latest in a string of hard-fought legal victories that Malamud has secured with help froom @EFF and its co-counsel at @wilsonsonsini. 23/

In 2020, after six years, the American Educational Research Association Inc, the American Psychological Association, and the National Council on Measurement in Education dropped their case against him. 24/

He also triumphed over an attempt by sheet metal and HVAC associations to copyright a federally mandated standard on air-duct leakage. 25/

If you're interested in learning more about Malamud's philosophical and political work, I strongly recommend his 2020 documentary, Open Access Ninja (which is also a beer recipe, which is, naturally, free as in speech, if not as in beer):

pluralistic.net/2021/10/05/mas… 26/

And remember, Malamud's work isn't just about the law. His 2021 project to free a concordance to all scientific knowledge is, if anything, even more ambitious than his legal work:

pluralistic.net/2021/10/28/cli… 27/

CORRECTION! EFF's co-counsel in Malamud's cases is @FenwickWest, not @WilsonSonsini