And how is this different from state/fed paid govt ag extension
publications? Yes, they compete with commercial writers and are given away
"free" (which is only right, since the taxpayer already paid for them). So,
commercial writers, motivated by profit, must distinguish their offerings in
some way, offering more value for the cost involved to the consumer.
As to the strawberry grower and another beekeeper setting up their hives ...
that is the reason for written contracts and civil lawsuits. Breach of
contract is pretty well established as a cause for liability to the other
party. It matters not that Clemson put them in "free" (actually Dave, paid
for by you through your taxes), the party in the wrong is the strawberry
grower. Clemson has done nothing illegal (morally offensive perhaps, but
even then, that depends on their knowledge of the prior contract), so long
as they did not conspire in the breach.
I am not unsympathetic to your loss of income, but I think you are mad at
the wrong party.
As to the web page contoversy -- it is very difficult anymore for the
hobbyist to compete with the resources of a larger "company", whether it is
private or government financed. But, that doesn't mean that if your page is
perceived as "better" that it could not be profitable. Better can mean many
things, including sheer number of visitors, number of click-thrus, or number
of referral purchases, which is what most people are willing to pay
advertising revenue on. With proper promotion (say, pay $xx extra for your
logo added , $yy for a live link to your site, $zz for preferential
placement or featured supplier listing ... none of which are probably
possible at a govt site), you could "win" the battle. Or, you could add
customer feedback notes to give your site more value (there are tools to do
this for free with little programming, such as blog). And so on.
There is a place for both, but little profit in a war. (well, no doubt
little profit in the endeavor at all, as we all know how tight many
beekeepers are <g>).
K Oland
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