If he’s conducting his business with a full disclosure about who and what he is and what one gets for their $10 fee, perhaps it isn’t smart from a consumer’s POV… but if you can sell water to a fish, more power to you.
About official state websites – a lot of them are FAR from user friendly. That’s been a major complaint of mine for years. I visit and use various state websites on a regular basis and STILL find myself lost in many of them. I can imagine how frustrating it may be for a first time visitor trying to navigate one.
I never saw the website, so I have no opinion on whether or not a reasonable person would confuse it with the official site. The crux of the state’s argument seems to be that there was intent to deceive, though. That’s a different story than foolish people voluntarily parting with their money.
You re-package it, adding value by making it more convenient to use, compiling information from multiple locations and putting them in one place, indexing, etc.
There is a cost to doing this, so if this is what he was doing, I don’t think he was doing anything wrong.
If he’s conducting his business with a full disclosure about who and what he is and what one gets for their $10 fee, perhaps it isn’t smart from a consumer’s POV… but if you can sell water to a fish, more power to you.
About official state websites – a lot of them are FAR from user friendly. That’s been a major complaint of mine for years. I visit and use various state websites on a regular basis and STILL find myself lost in many of them. I can imagine how frustrating it may be for a first time visitor trying to navigate one.
I never saw the website, so I have no opinion on whether or not a reasonable person would confuse it with the official site. The crux of the state’s argument seems to be that there was intent to deceive, though. That’s a different story than foolish people voluntarily parting with their money.
Just asking.
You re-package it, adding value by making it more convenient to use, compiling information from multiple locations and putting them in one place, indexing, etc.
There is a cost to doing this, so if this is what he was doing, I don’t think he was doing anything wrong.