Anyone has the right to buy a domain.
The site serves the purpose which you could criticise him for not serving:
It lets you download PuTTY.
putty.com sells jars with goo, and they don't provide links to the SSH client.
> They are selling a commercial product by using the name of a popular open source tool
You have to look with a historical perspective here.
He's giving away related software for free.
Sure, you can buy a commercial license, but almost nobody does.
> on top of that is additionally a direct competitor
I've heard the market for free Windows SSH clients is fierce!
> How "friendly" the site is designed is a factor
Yes, it certainly is.
It is a factor that spells out his intent quite clearly as one that isn't ill-willed.
He's putting the real PuTTY client first on the site.
He's not doing weird stuff like serving his own executables.
He's not showing ads.
He's disclaiming that his own software is not endorsed by PuTTY.
He's giving away similar software.
He's basically saying,
"Hey, now that you're here, I made an SSH client, too, you might like it!"
Anyone has the right to buy a domain.
The site serves the purpose which you could criticise him for not serving:
It lets you download PuTTY.
putty.com sells jars with goo, and they don't provide links to the SSH client.
> They are selling a commercial product by using the name of a popular open source tool
You have to look with a historical perspective here.
He's giving away related software for free.
Sure, you can buy a commercial license, but almost nobody does.
> on top of that is additionally a direct competitor
I've heard the market for free Windows SSH clients is fierce!
> How "friendly" the site is designed is a factor
Yes, it certainly is.
It is a factor that spells out his intent quite clearly as one that isn't ill-willed.
He's putting the real PuTTY client first on the site.
He's not doing weird stuff like serving his own executables.
He's not showing ads.
He's disclaiming that his own software is not endorsed by PuTTY.
He's giving away similar software.
He's basically saying,
"Hey, now that you're here, I made an SSH client, too, you might like it!"