“All we’re asking is for the FAA to bring its regulations in line with the times so that new ideas in the aviation industry can take off,”
Flytenow, a start-up business that uses the Internet to connect private pilots with passengers wishing to share travel plans and flight expenses, sued the FAA for shutting the website down.
Cost-sharing with private pilots and passengers has been allowed by the FAA since the 1960s. Pilots previously found people to cost-share with by word of mouth, phone, posting notes on bulletin boards in airports, by email, and various other means. But the FAA says that using a website is "holding out" and it therefore makes Flytenow a commercial operator.
The quote above is from their lawyer.