Why is my courthouse not giving me the estate probates?

[Brandon Monaghan]

I was told by a lady working at the courthouse today that it is illegal to use the information for self gain.  She did not even ask what my purpose was except that I can look up the probates by last name in the database.  That is completely inconvenient because it is all estate probates since the 1980's!  It would take a very very long time to go through it all and record it, in addition I would have to do this on a regular basis just to find new leads.  Can someone shine some light onto the situation for me.  Maybe the legality of requesting this public information...