Access To Sec Documents Improved

A top attraction of the Internet - free access to thousands of corporate documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission - is about to be substantially improved.

Beginning this summer, company annual reports, proxy statements and other documents filed will be available on the Internet the same day they are filed with the SEC, according to Carl Malamud, president of the non-profit Internet Multicasting Service.

Currently, Internet Multicasting makes the documents available on the Internet, the global network of computers, after a one-day delay.

The documents are a treasure trove for financial analysts, researchers and the public, offering intimate details of corporate behavior and performance.

The documents were first made available on the Internet for free in 1994 as part of a project to test electronic distribution of government databases.