This thread is disturbing. I regularly do work in 4 counties and having to pay $300-500 to access the records online would suck. I could make the argument that putting them free online saves the county money over the long run, and makes the people that use these records more productive citizens....
But for those of you that say the county puts the records online for free, but charges you to print them, is just absurd. The bandwidth has been spent by the time it gets to your computer. It's not costing them anything for you to hit the print button. In Florida we have a "cost of reproduction" law which I think would prevent type of policy. however, like Carl said, I would be looking for ways to circumvent that and not feeling a bit bad about it.
In my little neck of SW PA, one county is totally free. My home county just recently (within the last 2 months) put their deeds on line. $0.50 per page to view ($5 max for each deed). Tax assessment info is free (but usually only about 75% correct. Neighboring counties have similar systems of pay by use. All in all, I like it better than driving to each of the different courthouses.
Harris County, Texas
In the Harris County Clerk's Office, Harris County, Texas, there are no deeds, nor plats available online.
The next County to the Southwest, Ft. Bend County,Texas, has every deed and every plat ever recorded available online for free (with the words, "UNOFFICIAL DOCUMENT" in a very large but semi-transparent font plastered across every page at 45 degrees).
TPR
I agree with you up to a point. In Georgia there is an additional recording fee ($1.00 per document?) to pay for the implemenmtation and maintenance of the system. The law required all counties (159 of them) to scan all documents. Georgia has some of the poorest counties in the country and some just couldn't afford the scanners so a portion of the money is used to help those counties. I certainly don't mind paying $0.25 per page (whether 8 1/2 X 11 or whatever size you plot). If I have to drive 30 minutes or an hour to get to and back from the Clerk's office that pays for a LOT of pages. Besides I can print to a file and keep the deeds and plats with all the rest of the electronic data.
Andy
In San Bernardino County, CA it is $1.25 per sheet to download the .tif image. Once you do though you save it on your server and never have to pay for that map again.
You don't even need to press the control button first, only print screen.
Plats, deeds and property records all free via county web site...I just saved and printed a plat dated back in 1945.