(a) As used in this section:
(1) “Acquire” includes acquisition by gift, purchase, lease, eminent domain, or otherwise.
(2) “Local public entity” means any public entity other than the state.
(3) “Public record plant” means the plant, or any part thereof, or any record therein, of any person engaged in the business of searching or publishing public records or insuring or guaranteeing titles to real property, including copies of public records and abstracts or memoranda taken from public records, which is owned by or in the possession of such person or which is used by him in his business.
(b) If public records of a local public entity have been lost or destroyed by conflagration or other public calamity, the local public entity may acquire the right to reproduce such portion of a public record plant as is necessary for the purpose of restoring or replacing the records or their substance.
(Added by Stats. 1975, Ch. 1240.)