Among the 57 California counties that have GIS-formatted parcel basemaps, 49 counties provide their GIS parcel basemap data for free, or the cost of duplication, as required by the California Public Record Act (§6250-6259 of the Government Code).

A three-year lawsuit to enforce California's Public Record Act (PRA) finally concluded in late August with Santa Clara County substantially reducing the price it charges for its digital parcel basemap. While some surveyors may still argue that their private stash of control monuments is their source of revenue, most today acknowledge that compiling this information in a supervised manner and sharing it benefits everyone a lot more.