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Comment by SkittyDog | Hacker News Reader

You're all missing the point... ANYbody with a Lexis Nexus subscription, or a Bloomberg terminal, or one of those background check sites, already has this exact capability. It's not new.

You dont need to be a lawyer to access any of it... I think the other poster simply meant that lawyers generally have Lexis subscriptions, already.

Also, the various court databases this site is searching are ALREADY online and publicly available, and have been for years. This is just providing a free, unified interface with a fast search index.

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> This is just providing a free, unified interface with a fast search index.

Yes, and that is a phase change difference. It's not a trivial enhancement.

So you think the $10/month fee for existing services is what induced the phase change? I've done hundreds of these searches, paid maybe $20 total.

I have a different theory about why this bugs you... Previous to today, you were ignorant of that these records were available online so cheaply and quickly. Nothing has really changed, except your own anxiety levels as your worldview struggles to absorb this information. But your brain wants the change to be external, because that's less threatening than the realization that this capability has been lurking out there in the world, all along.

Ha! It bugs me for exactly the reasons I stated above.

At some level I get the angst about typing someone's name, especially if it's fairly unusual, and getting back a whole lot of information about, in this case, mostly legal-related stuff and in others past addresses, things they've written etc. for free. (And, if you know something about them you can probably sift the returns somewhat effectively.) You may be able to find out a lot about your date, your neighbor, etc.

On the other hand, outside of casually checking out someone, the reality is that this has long been available for anyone want to spend a very few bucks to do so.

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