Hmmm, I have often thought it would be nice to have scans of all of the deeds in the County I work in. Is there any way to stop me from going to the registry and taking a snapshot of each deed? How about if I bring a scanner and just start scanning. Ouch, 4 million will take some time, but if I am planning to profit off the scans, I should have to invest something.
Unfortunately, I find it excessive to charge $1 per print when you print off your own computer. Of course, the $1 the Barnstable Registry charges has enabled them to expend the funds to scan every deed back to when the registry burned down in 1828.
Some of these systems have back doors. When you view the image, a copy is stored in a magical place in your computer or a crafty computer geek can get the image to copy to a file as it loads on your screen. What if this MacImage went through and siphoned every deed that way? (Assuming the system is 'hackable') Then the computer geek could just Bot it and get every image with an indexed file name. Then it would take some time to annex the file flags (grantor, grantee, dates, other deeds referred to, etc.) but they would have to do that anyhow.
> Hmmm, I have often thought it would be nice to have scans of all of the deeds in the County I work in. Is there any way to stop me from going to the registry and taking a snapshot of each deed? How about if I bring a scanner and just start scanning. Ouch, 4 million will take some time, but if I am planning to profit off the scans, I should have to invest something.
>
> Unfortunately, I find it excessive to charge $1 per print when you print off your own computer. Of course, the $1 the Barnstable Registry charges has enabled them to expend the funds to scan every deed back to when the registry burned down in 1828.
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> Some of these systems have back doors. When you view the image, a copy is stored in a magical place in your computer or a crafty computer geek can get the image to copy to a file as it loads on your screen. What if this MacImage went through and siphoned every deed that way? (Assuming the system is 'hackable') Then the computer geek could just Bot it and get every image with an indexed file name. Then it would take some time to annex the file flags (grantor, grantee, dates, other deeds referred to, etc.) but they would have to do that anyhow.
Nope. Printscreen and other functions have been disabled - they already thought of that.
A packet sniffer could do it, they still have to transmit an image that shows up on your screen. I'm not condoning that someone hacks the data, I'm just wondering why the geeks have not already done the work around.
This charging to view on the internet is a ridiculous concept, anyway. Tax payer money was already used to scan the images. There is some cost associated with maintaining the servers, etc., but fact is, by putting the data online, they are saving on salaries for the people who used help people locate their deeds, cashiers, microfilm machines, electricity, printing, etc. ... not to mention that the convince of the internet reveals traffic. There is no justification for charging $1 per page to view an image on the internet, especially if you live in a "Freedom of Information" state. This should not be about "income stream", the Clerk is not running a "for profit" business. I think the mere fact that a private, for profit, company claims they can undercut the clerk is evidence that the clerk is price gouging.
>... they are saving on salaries for the people who used help people locate their deeds, cashiers, microfilm machines, electricity, printing, etc. ... not to mention that the convince of the internet reveals traffic.
Some places see this as an economic development opportunity. Have heard that some counties in Ohio have none of their records online. Their idea is they have a staff of 20 to 30 people who have to go retrieve every document you want one at a time.
Personally I see that as very short term thinking. Everyone in those counties would be better off if the recording fees were increased to fund all the scanning and putting records online.
> This should not be about "income stream", the Clerk is not running a "for profit" business. I think the mere fact that a private, for profit, company claims they can undercut the clerk is evidence that the clerk is price gouging.
While I agree the office is not "for profit" we all know that it takes a certain amount of money to pay for the people and equipment. Much better idea to just let the recording fees pay for everything.
Larry P
I agree with the attorney for the plaintiff. The legislature changed the rules in the middle of the game. If they wanted to make the rules apply from the date of passage forward, fine. But making things apply retroactively is wrong.
The court blew this one.
Larry P
I don't know of any California County Recorders having Official Records (one book with Deeds and everything else except maps) on-line. Some have an on-line index but those typically only go back a few decades. There are private services you can purchase which deliver records on-line. Once you leave the Recorder's Office with a copy in your hand you can do anything you want with it including publish it on-line.
The maps are another story. Some Counties have their maps on-line for free (usually the County Surveyor), some sell a CD with images on it (usually the Recorder), otherwise you have to go purchase a copy. Sacramento sells a CD but a private individual has published all of them on a private website for free. One County Surveyor had the maps on-line until the Recorder complained to the Board of Supervisors so the Board told the CS to take the maps down. Now you have to purchase them from the Recorder (it's kind of backwards for the State with the Silicone Valley).
The County Recorders are not subject to the California PRA (Public Records Act) because they are covered under a different Statute. They can get away with charging a lot more for copies of recorded documents than we can when we get a PRA request for anything in our files (we can get about 10 cents per copy).
I see no reason why
Why is it that some folks think they should be able to capture what is in the public domain for pennies on the dollar and then turn around and charge you $5 a page. Our system is so unfair....
I see no reason why
I don't know how much companies like First American pay for digital copies of Deeds. They don't often go back far enough in rural areas anyway.
Some counties allow you to order on-line with a credit card but they still mail you a paper copy.
I think it would be best for the public interest to find some way to fund the County Recorder (maybe through higher recording fees) and just publish the Deeds on-line for nothing like it is in many other States.
I see no reason why
A few times per year some company is wanting to sign me up for their online deed search. I always ask them to be sure they have in their system the counties I normally work in. They don't and must send someone there just like me to get any information.
There are days that the ladies are open to faxing you a few copies to save the 40mi to 80mi round trip. They charge $2 or $3 per page to fax info.
Their records are on digital form somewhere because all that is available are copies and everything in the deed records have been scanned by some company that reproduces them. It has all been coded to be read only by their software.
Since 2006 everything is digital and they do not have anything in house for backup except 2005 and back that is hard copy.
All the digital data is only available over a server link to Southwest Data, True Automation or other organized data system.
When the server link is down, they can not provide any data to copy.
It would not be that difficult to connect this information to the public, however the local county governments do not wish to do that. They barely understand the digital world.
On the other hand, they allow the local title companies to have digital updates on a weekly basis.
😉