You are not usually this negative Mark. I was suprised to see this. But you hint at related fields? Which fields are you referring to? Almost all the related fields I can think of are also being affected. And this includes the VM's.

Some VM's seem to have realized this push to cut the fees endagers their greatest asset, their network of independent abstractors. Without our work product, they have nothing to sell at any price. Some may have thought they could replace us with online counties and bulk purchases of the digitized images. These companies may soon face huge challenges as court decisions and legislation take away their cheap sources. A federal decision in Michigan recently did just this. New laws preventing distribution of the "public record" outside the jurisdiction will further limit their greed.

Citizens all over the country are filing class actions against the agencies who have been so reckless with the privacy of their citizens and security of their communities. Companies from other industries are facing these same suits. Any company or agency who chose to treat the documented lives of our our citizens as a commodity will be at risk. A claim of a "closed, secure, or password protected system will not protect them. Lexus/Nexus shows no such system exists and Choicepoint demonstrated a hacker isn't neccessary. If it is online, it isn't safe for the consumers or for the companies who sell their information.

Some of the companies who attacked our industry with computerized online searches have already gone extinct.  Zenodata  boasted the largest collection of county land record images in the country. Their greed may have led to their downfall.