Ok, lets work backward here.  In each of the examples you list, the records were publicly available at the county courthouse.  The common thread is that a crime was enacted by use of these records, correct?  There is no causal link between the fact that these records are online and the crimes that were committed with the information contained in public records.  The crimes may have been performed differently by the fact that the public records were accessable from a location other than the county courthouse, but you offer no evidence that these crimes would have been impossible or more difficult had the information not been available online.
     From the standpoint of viewing public records as a commodity, yes I view the information as something that can be bought and sold.  As abstractors and title examiners do it every day.  When was the last time you took an order from a new client and performed it before checking if they were a real company or not?  As a commodity, think of if this way:  I bet you wouldn't think twice about where the cob of corn you pick up at the local grocery store was grown and what it has been exposed to.  And you don't have to, because it is regulated as to what it can and can not contain.  The answer to what you suggest isn't less data online, it is less data contained, displayed, or required on a public record.

Charles W. Skinner
National Vendor Management
Consumer Marketing Services, Inc. (CMS)