[ch_123]

You're attacking a strawman here. The issue was that he was making a profit by reselling tickets, not by automating filling forms in a website. The mechanism is not particularly relevant.

By analogy, it is legal to park my car in my own garden, but not legal to park it in my neighbour's garden. If I were to do that, I might expect to be punished for "parking my car".

[jkoudys]

You start by accusing him of using a strawman, then using an analogy which doesn't even remotely apply. It's closer to your neighbour selling you the rights to park in their garden, then you selling those rights to someone else. Far from a criminal, arrestable offence, so their point on the broad-brush of being "illegal" stands.

Even my closer analogy is still pretty far off and it's much more innocent. Maybe closer to charging a fee to use a very tricky to figure out parking meter.

[ch_123]

> It's closer to your neighbour selling you the rights to park in their garden, then you selling those rights to someone else. Far from a criminal, arrestable offence, so their point on the broad-brush of being "illegal" stands.

That's a good analogy, but perhaps not for the reason you think. In many situations where you acquire property rights from an owner, there are clauses which restrict or limit sub-leasing to a third party, or using the land for commercial gain. If I was doing what you are describing, I would want to read the lease or agreement very carefully to see whether I am allowed to do that.

Again, I think the developer acted in good faith, but it seems a bit naive to resell something for profit (no matter how small) without seeking legal advice, or at very least reading the T&Cs. We also cannot accuse the government of setting arbitrary restrictions - ticket touting is a problem, even if the government probably could have done more to make it easier for people to buy tickets legitimately.