The opinion of the 'man in the pub' don't amount to diddly squit when it comes to legal matters, but in terms of reputation the 'man on the Clapham omnibus' might say that this is a medium- to long-term disaster waiting to happen. It may be getting hits now, but as soon as 'disgusted of Coventry' finds out it may well be game over.

Do you need to bother buying his company?

You sound like you've got the means to get the word out, so replicate the site functionality, and come along as a clean competitor.

I was going to say what Pete said.

 

Or see if you can buy his content and launch your own version of the site under your own empire.

I have zero legal advice to offer, but I reckon the overall idea would be very well recieved by teachers. As you say, the resources are very good. I think you know the main hurdles (I.e., the reputation etc), but I think handled delicately, you could make it work.

 

We blocked it (along with almost everyone else) and it went down like a ton of lead ballons.

Only part of his content, maybe.

:D

Speaking of sparklebox...

Arfle!

 

And how very odd! It would be like fucking a mirror ball...

 

<edit> In fact, she makes exactly the same point herself in the article. </edit>

Yeah, it is Sparklebox, and we are possibly the only name who could keep it going (rebranded of course, there would be no other way). The problem is that the employees have gone underground (they are totally innocent BTW) and getting in contact with them is next to impossible. Emails sent and now letters in post, but it's all a waitign game. It's one thing to say replicate what they did, but they have years of content on their and it is all good stuff, and to see it vanish would be pointless. However their may be many legal hoops to jump through, but they got 27,000,000 hits in a 10 month period, and that can't be ignored. The thing my company has goign for it is its total integrity. We have a name that can do this if only I can get their attention.
Ah well, the waiting game begins.
Oh, and the BBC (who've been lurking on my site) have let me know their is a program about this on tonight on Inside Out (West) at 19:30 tonight. After this I may get a bit more public in my interest.
The company and it's employees are sound and has been (massively) let down by one person. I'd hate to see them lose their jobs and the site sink, especially when I'm in a postion to do something about it.