GREENVILLE - Records from one of the state's busiest court systems will soon be just a few clicks away on the Internet.

Starting early next year, the Greenville County Clerk of Court's office will put criminal and civil court records online, joining a handful of S.C. counties that have their court records on the Internet.

State Supreme Court Chief Justice Jean Toal said the ultimate goal is for all counties to go online and link to one another.

While the records have always been available to the public at the courthouse, they weren't as public as they will be now, said Anita L. Allen-Castellito, law and philosophy professor at the University of Pennsylvania specializing in Internet privacy.

"It's more than just making what's already public more public," she said. "It's making what was functionally private now functionally public."

And that wider availability worries people who make money from researching court records, including Jimmy Davis, owner of A-1 Investigations in Easley.

Davis and his wife is threatened by the fact that more counties are putting those records online.

"Why would they need a middle man?" Davis asked.