When the Internal Revenue Service calls, people pay attention -- especially as tax time approaches in April.

So Thomas Bruce, director of the Cornell Law School's Legal Information Institute (LII), was a little surprised to get a call in February from the IRS. No, it wasn't an audit (whew!). It had to do with LII's crisply organized and composed version of Title 26, the section of the U.S. code that governs tax law. The IRS wanted to include LII's Title 26 in its top-drawer Tax Products CD/DVD package, which includes tax publications and forms, research tools and answers to FAQs.

Now it also offers the LII's Title 26.

"LII's version of the U.S. Code is hugely popular, highly ranked in Google and one of the things we're proudest of," said Bruce. "But this was the first time we were ever directly approached by a U.S. agency requesting published data for redistribution on such a large scale," said Bruce. "We have a long history of use by federal agencies and a strong tradition of outreach, but this was something new."

The six staff members at the LII are pretty savvy when it comes to fielding queries for information on their Web site. After all, the institute has an international reputation as a leading provider of free, user-friendly public legal information on everything from divorce settlements to offshore corporate tax codes. In fact the LII Web site accounts for 25 percent of all Cornell Web traffic, much of it from international legal searches. Some 10 million hits a week from more than 200 countries make the LII a local Internet hot spot.

The IRS produces 26,000 of its Tax Product CD/DVD packages, which are sent free of charge to thousands of tax preparers and other interested parties, usually lawyers. The package goes to each member of Congress; to such free tax clinics as those run by the AARP; to members of the IRS Corporate Partnership (companies who make tax information freely available on company intranets); to libraries; and to IRS employees and IRS walk-in offices.

"We work in a disconnected environment, and employees like easy access to products," said Paul Showalter, the IRS staffer who produces the Tax Products and placed the call to Bruce. "The Tax Products package is a great off-line research tool, and that's why it was created."

The LII closed the deal with the IRS in one business day, transmitting the rights and Cornell Law School's version of Title 26 to the agency with a minimum of formal fuss. While the Government Printing Office (GPO) also makes the U.S. Tax Code available online, it is a mind-numbing read. The LII version is not only more readable, but also provides a table of recent updates to the law and a link to the GPO site; its materials can be easily downloaded or printed.

The IRS request highlights the unique services LII offers, said Bruce.

"A number of law schools distribute case law and litigation. But not on the same scale as the institute and not for as long," he said. "The LII also offers commentary so that a wide variety of people can use the material more easily."

Founded by Bruce and Cornell Law Professor Peter Martin in 1992, the LII was the first site to provide open-access legal information on the Web. It also wrote the first Web browser for Microsoft Windows -- Cello -- in 1993, as most lawyers at the time used Microsoft PCs.

Top search queries include the U.S. Constitution, First Amendment, Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Federal Rules of Evidence, Uniform Commercial Code, U.S. Code and Supreme Court cases.

To access LII's user-friendly version of Title 26, visit http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/26/usc_sup_01_26.html. The LII also makes general tax information accessible at http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/index.php/Income_tax.