Date: Wed, 13 Aug 2003 09:40:11 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam Dear Fred and members of bytesforall and Lis-Forum lists: Here is an excellent initiative from the USA. Do you think that we in India should mount such an effort and make audio recordings of all Supreme Court proceedings available to the public free of cost? Best wishes. Arun ----------- Subject: US Supreme Court Cases Get a Fresh Hearing (fwd) SUPREME COURT CASES GET A FRESH HEARING Since 1994, Northwestern University's OYEZ project has made audio of US Supreme Court cases available in a "streaming" format that requires a continuous Internet connection. Now the project is converting the files to MP3 format, which permits downloading, file sharing and use on portable devices. The MP3 files are free and sharable, if users agree to credit OYEZ and limit usage to noncommercial purposes. Jerry Goldman, the project's director, hopes to make available with search functionality all of the approximately 6,000 hours of the Supreme Court recordings since 1955, when taping of oral arguments began. "The whole idea is to build a digital commons, make accessible materials that are really valuable in a free and open society," he said. Particularly with controversial cases such as affirmative action and abortion, "there's so much more information and emotion in the human voice that a transcript can't do it justice," explained Goldman. SOURCE: Washington Post; AUTHOR: Phuong Le http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A41812-2003Aug10.html ***********************************