I love when people double down out of principle, when the only person getting hurt is themselves.
He refuses to change it because he did nothing wrong...sure, but you are also the only one being hurt by it. Is this really the hill to die on?
He refuses to change it because he did nothing wrong...sure, but you are also the only one being hurt by it. Is this really the hill to die on?
As I see it, this person is performing a public service by not budging on this. It's nowhere near on the same level as Rosa Parks not going to the back of the bus, but sometimes we need people to not simply go with the flow because it's the easiest thing to do.
And frankly, why would it? Different government agencies likely have zero reason to cooperate on it. Especially if, say, the DMV is responsible for the error, but the courts are the ones dealing with the cost.
So unless this guy has a reason to think it will get fixed because of him... he's just wasting his time, no?
This guy is really just wasting his own time for no actual benefit to anyone. If he genuinely enjoys it, then sure, I guess each to their own, but if not...
His family name was Nissan, and he registered the domain when Nissan still called itself "Datsun" in the U.S.A.
But how - he can challenge the fines in a court of law. Since it's a vanity plate, adding an extra notoriety won't hurt.
You're paying for it with a lawyer or with your own time
Except he just contacted the DMV. No lawyers necessary.
I dunno about you, but I value my time way too highly to voluntarily use it to spend time on the phone with the DMV every month or three.
> You're paying for it with a lawyer or with your own time
At some point surely you can countersue for harassment?
After the second or third time, the judge will ask, "why didn't you just change your license plate to something else and avoid all this hassle?" And when you answer, "I've grown fond of the plate, and want the DMV to fix its systems", the judge will sigh, and rule against you for wasting his/her time instead of just changing your license plate.
Are you suggesting that if this person were to sue for the repeated harassment and presumably prevail (with some kind of damages attached) that the behavior would persist?
I'm don't really see an incentive for the govt agency to do anything about it. It's no skin off their nose. They'll just keep sending the tickets.
For all you know, they have a list of too-clever license plates (null, no plate, etc), and they purposefully divvy up the no plate tickets among them.
In a way, this is the real bug - one that affects more areas of local government than most people know or understand.
Our local governments are constantly seeking - and usually getting - private companies to do what should be public. The potential (and actual) repercussions to the system are serious.
For instance, how do such arrangement affect FOIA requests? What about other forms of transparency? Are we really getting our money's worth as taxpayers? Is the money actually being used properly or are costs being inflated?
It's a form of government privatization "by a thousand cuts" - we already know of the problems inherent in the system of privatizing out and contracting of private prisons; plus the loop they cause because of recidivism rates, because a repeat "customer" is better for the bottom line than one reformed for society. Which may be better for the private company, but has huge costs to society itself.
I wouldn't doubt that similar issues are happening with the privatization of other parts of our local government. It is sickening to me, personally.
So in reality, this guy is indirectly wasting taxpayer money. Sure, the government is wrong in not fixing it, but knowing that the government won't fix it, but continuing to behave this way, is his fault.
Now I wonder what you would consider a minor inconvenience. "Oh yeah that time they suspended my licence that was a minor inconvenience for me."
Wrongly addressed tickets are a real hassle. I'd assume that if you don't contest them in time, you have to pay them. And if you don't pay them, they will suspend your licence. (I don't really know. But I assume that's what would happen.)
It just means "argue a point on principle when you know you aren't going to affect change".
If he sees spending time and effort expunging his record every few weeks as worth the trade-off for the 'extra notoriety', then power to him. I wouldn't do that.
Sure, it would be nice if the systems where patched. But maybe he should just get a job at the DMVs IT department instead :)
In the end I would probably rather pay the fines than fix this bug, it's probably a lot of horrible systems barely held together..
Ew.