After Ohio’s State Auditor Dave Yost discovered at least three Ohio counties are charging subscription fees, ranging from $50-$300 per year, for online access to property and mortgage records, he’s slapped a cease and desist letter on all 88 counties in the state to stop them from even considering the practice.Butler County Recorder Danny Clark, chair of the legislative committee for the Ohio Recorder’s Association, told local press that he’s been trying since 2009 to get laws on the books that allow counties to charge for online access to at least some public records.The pro-paid argument: it takes a lot of money to put records online, especially because private info such as social security numbers has to be ‘redacted’ from each document beforehand. The biggest users of the documents are law firms, banks, title companies … and yes subscription database publishers … who can well afford the fees which they pass on to their customers.The pro-free argument: Individual consumers should be able to view their records online without being charged a lot of money and the government shouldn’t be in any business that could be ‘profit-making.’Our take on the matter: Ohio counties and other local governments can use metered paywall software already in use by many newspapers to allow low-use users in to see records for nothing or next-to-nothing. But, otherwise, heavy users should pay for the costs that governments bear in uploading and maintaining records online. Just because the content is “public” doesn’t mean the public should pay to help bankers and lawyers access it more conveniently.And, there’s plenty of precedent for government publications such as Smithsonian Magazine to sell subscriptions.