---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 24 Oct 1993 20:14:28 -0500
From: David Micko <micko@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu>
To: slaite-l@vaxvmsx.babson.edu
Subject: EDGAR on the Internet!!!
Alwright! Hold on to your hats, cause this is a long one...but well worth
it. This is (IMHO) probably one of the most important Internet advances
in the last 10 years. The EDGAR database has long been hailed as the
most valubale database in the world for quite some time now, and it
always has been one of the nost expensive to access through your friend
and mine...Mead Data Central. That direct SEC info will be availbale for
free on the internet will (believe me) be the biggest draw the Internet
has ever seen. If the data that is actually in EDGAR is at all
accessible, every competitive organization from here to Timbuktu will
want access to it. If the price of access is an Internet connection,
expect to see the Internet go from a high tech toy to a business
essential....
****************************************************************************
David Micko * "One might say that wisdom is not
Technical Information Specialist * simply a mental process, but the
Illinois Power Company * sum total of a human being."
micko@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu *
(217) 362-7685 * "Wisdom is what I eat for breakfast"
****************************************************************************
_______________________________________
from TAP-INFO Internet Distribution List
Taxpayer Assets Project
Crown Jewels Campaign
October 22, 1993
- NSF Announces Grant to Put EDGAR Online
- Decision is important victory for two year grass roots
campaign to broaden public access to EDGAR
- Department of Justice meets with data users on monday to
discuss future of JURIS program
FMI James Love (215/658-0880; love@essential.org)
Mike Ward (202/387-8030; mike@essential.org)
Today the New York Times and Congressman Edward Markey (D-
MA) announced that the National Science Foundation would fund a
pilot project to place the Securities and Exchange Commission's
(SEC) Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis and Retrieval (EDGAR)
system online for users of the Internet. The service will be
provided by New York University's Stern School of Business and
the Internet Multicasting Service (IMS), which is run by Carl
Malamud.
The SEC's EDGAR database is the world's most important and
valuable source of information on corporate activities, and
includes the full text of a large number of company disclosure
reports on company fiances and operations. Access to the full
text of these filings will now be free for data users with access
to the Internet, including limited email access through such
services as MCIMAIL and American Online.
THE 1989 SEC CONTRACT WITH MEAD DATA CENTRAL
In 1989 the SEC entered into a contract with Mead Data
Central to manage the EDGAR database and to disseminate the
information to the public. Mead, however, has a major conflict
of interest, since it sells the EDGAR SEC filings on its high
priced LEXIS/NEXIS services, for an estimated cost of $240 to
$360 per hour (at normal searching patterns). Originally, Mead
was going to be allowed to provide a only very limited wholesale
access to the records, at costs ranging from $30,000 to $175,000
per year, for bulk dissemination of the current day's fillings.
Under the terms of the original agreement, the Government only
received a microfiche copy of the filings, while Mead kept the
electronic records in Ohio on computers owned by Mead (but paid
for under the SEC's $14 million contract with Mead). The
Information Industry Association (IIA) heralded the EDGAR
contract as a model for all federal agencies.
LIBRARY GROUPS SOUGHT ONLINE ACCESS TO EDGAR FILING IN 1989
In 1989, several library organizations expressed interest in
receiving online access to the EDGAR system through the 1,400
member federal Depository Library Program (DLP). This effort was
defeated when the SEC contractor claimed it would costs as much
as $18 million per year to provide online searching of EDGAR from
the 1,400 libraries.
TAP BEGINS CAMPAIGN FOR PUBLIC ACCESS TO EDGAR IN 1991
In April 1991 TAP provided testimony to the Joint Committee
on Printing (JCP), criticizing the Mead/SEC contract, and asked
for broader public access to the EDGAR filings. Discussions with
the SEC and Congressional staff regarding access issues were
expanded. In late 1991 and early 1992 TAP began posting messages
on the Internet about the EDGAR contract. A letter asking for
broader access to EDGAR was circulated on the Net. The
presidents of the American Economic Association, the American
Library Association and more than 200 others (economists,
journalists, businesses, librarians, public interest groups and
other data users) joined in asking for broader access to EDGAR,
in a June 17, 1992 letter to the SEC, Representative Edward
Markey and Senator Herbert Kohl. A large number of individuals,
businesses and other organizations also wrote their own letters
to Members of Congress.
Congressman Markey and Dingell responded to the June 17,
1992 letter and other inquires by asking GAO to conduct several
reviews of the EDGAR contract. GAO generally defended the Mead
contract, often with misleading or incorrect assumptions about
the limited nature of public access under the contract.
TAP wrote several articles in computer magazines,
newspapers, and academic journals about the EDGAR contract, and
continued to meet with SEC and Congressional staff. In the fall
of 1992 the American Library Association and the Taxpayer Assets
Project began a new dialog with John Lane, the SEC's new Chief
Information Officer, about public access to EDGAR.
On January 29, 1993 a meeting was held with Markey's staff
which was attended by 27 persons representing a wide range of
news media, academic, citizen group, and library researchers who
want access to the EDGAR data, including representatives form
such organizations as the Washington Post, the LA Times, USA
Today, Barons, Associated Press, the Taxpayer Assets Project, the
National Library of Money and Politics, the Information Trust,
and the American Library Association, among others.
In early 1993 TAP decided to emphasize the importance of the
EDGAR database to private information providers, who would
benefit if low cost access to EDGAR led to expanded use of their
services. A letter drafted by TAP was signed by 10 private
information companies, including America Online, and sent to
Markey on May 15, 1993. This letter asked that EDGAR data be
made available through the Internet, including low-end internet
email connections. The May 15 letter appeared to mobile Markey
into pressing the SEC for online access to the EDGAR database.
SEC CONTINUED TO OPPOSE PUBLIC ACCESS, BUT MADE SEVERAL
CONCESSIONS
SEC staff continued to oppose virtually every effort to
expand public access to EDGAR, but the public pressure from
mobilized data users was extremely effective. The following is a
list of expanded public access proposals made by TAP that were
first opposed by the SEC, but finally adopted:
- Require Mead to sell all historical filings received under
the EDGAR system
- Require Mead to sell cumulative sets of data, rather that
only "current day" filings
- Require Mead to install floppy diskettes in reading room
terminals
- Require the SEC to disseminate EDGAR filings on CD-ROM, now
expected by early next year
- Require the SEC to provide public online access to the EDGAR
database to individuals
NSF SUPPORT AND THE PRO-ACTIVE UNSOLICITED PROPOSAL BY CARL
MALAMUD'S INTERNET MULTICASTING SERVICE (IMS) WAS KEY
While the SEC refused to proceed on an online service
earlier this year, the public access movement was kept alive by
the efforts of Carl Malamud and the NSF. Mead threatened the SEC
with lawsuits and other actions if it provided retail type online
access to EDGAR. The NSF was willing to buy the data from Mead
at the commercial rates, and fund NYU and IMS to disseminate the
records on the Internet. While a number of persons were aware of
the NSF/NYU/IMS proposal, things were kept very quiet, out of a
fear that Mead would find a way to kill the project before it was
born. Mead was completely surprised by the NSF action, since
they believed they had killed off efforts for online access to
EDGAR. By early this week Mead was still in a state of denial.
WHO MADE THIS HAPPEN?
The individuals and groups that made this happen include
Congressman Markey, who fulfilled his promise to expand access to
EDGAR, Steve Wolfe and the NSF, who funded the project despite
immense opposition from Mead Data Central, Carl Malamud, who was
tenacious in his efforts to get the database online, several
White House staff members who supported the project behind the
scenes, the 10 information providers who signed the May 15 letter
to Markey, and hundreds of individuals, business and
organizations who joined the grass roots lobbying effort to
broaden public access to EDGAR. Of course, we would like to pat
ourselves on the back as well.
ACTION IS HUGE VICTORY FOR PUBLIC ACCESS
The NSF/NYU/IMS project is a huge victory for public access
proponents, not only because of the importance of EDGAR, but also
because of the precedent that it sets. If EDGAR can be put on
the Internet, any federal database can.
DECISION SETS THE STAGE FOR IMPORTANT MONDAY MEETING WITH
DOJ REGARDING JURIS
On Monday TAP and more than one dozen other groups will meet
with DOJ regarding the future of the DOJ's vast JURIS database of
federal legal information. DOJ officials have recently stated
they will kill the JURIS project by January 1, 1994, because West
Publishing is asking DOJ to erase more than a decade of federal
caselaw provided by DOJ under competitive procurement contracts.
TAP and others are asking DOJ to replace West with another
contractor, such as Tax Analysts, who are prepared to supply the
data to the Government on a non-proprietary basis, with full
public access through CD-ROMs and Online services.
jamie love
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