When is Public Info too Public?

The debate over public records and easy access to them on the net will rage for years.

Let's see if I have this right. A record is a public record because Americans have agreed in the past that our public interest is best served when certain information is available (but not too available, it seems) to the public. A free society thrives best when more, rather than less, information can be widely known. This policy serves an open, free society. Information repressed is the stuff of totalitarianism. Until recently, the media, lawyers, private investigators, law enforcement and others, including bad guys, have been the miners of information. Because the net is the best tool for allowing anyone access to public information, not only those with special interests, some say Whoa, we can't have just anyone viewing this public information because...pick any of dozens of reasons. I say why not? The legal term of art "practical obscurity" is crumbling as well it should. Easy access, that's the ticket. I say Hooray! for Jim Cissell, the clerk of courts for Hamilton County, Ohio. "It was the natural progression of technology" to place public records on the Web, he said.
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"Information wants to be free," the mantra of the digerati since the birth of the net, is about to be put to the test by the common wo(man). Democracy will survive the challenge but the debate will be intense. Let 'er rip!