[jacquesm]

Those situations are not at all close. It's pretty simple: MugShots has inserted itself into the legal system, making what is already public still public is fine, levying a fee to remove the data is not because they have not been sanctioned to do so. If they were part of the government it would be a different matter but they have no business determining what the fee should be. That being the case the only reasonable fee they could arrive at is $0.

Keep in mind that in America lots of people are arrested at least once during their lifetime and that even if the charges are dropped or not substantiated that your mugshot remains.

This should not be a source of further cost to the subjects of the mugshots. After all, what would stop a few thousand of these sites from doing the same? The only party that should be allowed to levy a fee is the same party that maintains the original register.

Finally, I don't think there should even be such a thing as a public mugshot database.