Some people might have noticed that on the EFF Wins Savage v. CAIR! Fair Use in Action
post the link to the decision downloaded a PDF of the judgment hosted on an external site that we have not mentioned in the past – JDSupra. We normally try to link to AltLaw due to their open access model. For documents not yet on AltLaw we have decided to try using JD Supra. Here is little more information about the service:

JD Supra is an online repository of legal documents – a community-based research tool that offers everyone free access to the law and its practitioners:

• A community, in which members of the legal world post their court filings, decisions, and articles to a searchable database that is free for anyone to use.
• A real-time news source, in which the media 1) has instant and simultaneous access to important court filings and decisions, and 2) can find legal experts easily.

The overall structure of the site along with an opportunity to reach a legal audience has made the site appealing.  Honestly, I have been a little wary of using the service.  The main funding model appears to be firm sponsorship and paying for links on your profile. It is not the ideal model for public interest.  This means that FFIP does not get a link back from the site without spending $450.  As a volunteer organization with no real budget, this is not possible.  I feel slightly bad contributing time and links to an org that does not reciprocate.  If they had an lower donation level for public service and educational outreach orgs, or an option to earn a link through posting a certain amount of high quality content, I would feel better about using the service.

On the positive side EFF is one of the site’s sponsors.  A good service with a supporter like EFF is worth trying even over minor objections.