This comment seems like a lie, or at the least sly misdirection. According to this article the DMV is making 50M a year and openly admits that they redirect profits to other initiatives, they're not just "recovering the cost".
It's like saying, "I'm a software engineer, I sit at home and recoup the cost of sitting at my computer all day."
That was $50M in revenue, not profit. I blame the Vice headline; it said "makes," but in the article clarified that it's revenue.
They are required by law to provide information. That's not selling... that's just complying with their obligation to provide certain data.
And they charge a fee for it.
In other words, if you want to prevent them from providing information, you need to change the laws requiring they share information.
EDIT: I think I got it - I am hearing the fee is equal to the amount it costs them to provide it.
Is Amazon not "selling" retail products because they aren't really making a profit on it? In fact, they aren't always even recouping their full cost of selling products, those losses are offset by other revenue streams like aws.
Also known as doublespeak.