South Carolina Wants To Put Craigslist Management In Jail?
from the craig-doesn't-strike-me-as-the-jailhouse-type... dept
In the latest in an increasingly long line of misplaced attacks on Craigslist, South Carolina's Attorney General Henry McMaster is now threatening the company's principals with criminal charges because of how some folks have used the site. Someone should send McMaster a copy of section 230 of the CDA. You would think that a state Attorney General might... you know... know the law, before threatening to put people in jail. McMaster, of course, is running for governor of the state, so he likely sees this as a grandstanding opportunity -- just like he recently massively overhyped the risks of online predators. Someone else submitted the fact that McMaster also was so upset that a study that he (and most other state AGs) requested on the risks of online predators showed that the risks were greatly overstated that, rather than admit he was wrong, he withdrew from the workgroup studying the issue. This does not appear to be a fact-based individual. When presented with evidence, he simply says it can't be true.In this case, he's accusing Craigslist of being involved with prostitution, even though plenty of other (smarter) law enforcement officials have recognized that Craigslist is actually a useful tool in fighting prostitution, rather than a problem. He also claims that Craigslist management may be criminally liable due to "sexually explicit" photos hosted on the site. Except... as the link above points out, as long as the content isn't "obscene" (and McMaster presents no evidence that it is), then it's perfectly legal, and protected by the First Amendment. The whole thing stinks of a politician grandstanding by displaying his own ignorance of both technology and the law... all while running for governor.
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Filed Under: blame, henry mcmaster, prostitution, section 230, south carolina
Companies: craigslist
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Jesus
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Re: Jesus
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Re: Jesus
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Oh Mike, your tongue-in-cheek naivety is so endearing.
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Pretty sure this is considered "sexually explicit" and "obscene"
http://newyork.craigslist.org/que/m4w/1157552332.html
That took me all of about 15 seconds to find.
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Re:
By your definition, maybe. Certainly it is explicit by defeinition, but what is the definition of "obscene"?
1. offensive to morality or decency; indecent; depraved: obscene language.
2. causing uncontrolled sexual desire.
3. abominable; disgusting; repulsive.
Every single one of those is subjective. How in the world are you going to ethically legislate something that is SUCH a variance? Pedophilia is one thing, where your talking about such small percentages, but morality? Decency? Uncontrolled sexual desire? Disgusting/repulsive? You're going to be talking about a wide variance here, and those of us who believe in freedom do not think it is right to legislate against it, nor to hold those who merely allow for such material to be held criminally responsible.
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Unless you have this average person somewhere close by and we can ask him/her.
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This is the huge stumbling block in that definition when it comes to the internet. You're dealing with a medium that goes everywhere instantaneously. Which community's standards apply?
The community of the person who authors the site?
The community of the person who views the site?
The millions of communities in between?
Should the most sexually repressed religious fundamentalists out there have a veto power over the internet because their particular community views even the most beign G-rated material offensive?
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So all of that experience searching for porn finally pays off?!
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Eww
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No One Wants to See Your Willy!!!
Whoa, dude. Why the hell are you posting a picture of your willy on techdirt? Geez.
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Craiglists does even make any money indirectly off the sex classifieds via advertising, as Craigslist does not have such advertising.
Craiglist makes money solely on the sale of it rental listings.
So exactly how are the owners of Craigslist guilty of facilitating prostitution? It'd be like arresting a shop owner merely because a prostitute hangs out in front of his store. Or like arresting the owner of a phone company because the prostitute uses the phone to contact her johns.
In other words, even without the protections of 230 of the CDA, this legal threat makes absolutely no sense.
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The "erotic" section, the section that most people seem to focus on, costs 5 bucks to place an ad in.
To be fair, they've implemented it to try and stave off spammers.
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Which makes sense because the prostitutes and their johns are paying the hotel for their services. Neither the prostitutes nor the johns are paying craigslist.
"The bar doesn't make money off the drug dealers, but how are they liable also?"
If the bar allows drug dealing and it brings in customers, then indirectly it is benefiting from the dealing. Craigslist is not benefiting even indirectly from the sex ads.
This is more like my phone or sidewalk example. Merely because someone deals drugs in front of your house, should you be arrested too? Merely because someone uses a phone to deal drugs, should the owner of the phone company be arrested too?
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If you want to use the same lines of logic from your bar/hotel, then shouldn't the phone company be charged, since they are directly benefiting from both sides using a phone?
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The only thing you KNOW for sure
The only thing you can be sure about ANYONE who is Attorney General of a state, is that they really really want to be governor. This is yet another case of a white night trying desperately to find an evil dragon he can slay in the press in hopes of propelling him to that next office up.
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Re: The only thing you KNOW for sure
I hate white nights. They make it so hard to fall asleep.
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Re: The only thing you KNOW for sure
VRP
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Besides, we all know that attorney generals that want to become Governor know all about prostitution.
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Seriously?
This just in: Water is wet.
Some of these politicians are just salesmen. They sold themselves to their constituents and now they have a platform to push whatever agenda they feel will get them elected again. Pretty good gig.
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That may well be all of them. I'm positive the 'high end' hotels have plenty of their share of drug use and hookers as well. It's really none of the Hotel's business who the 'lady' you are with is. It could be your wife, girlfriend, business associate, or a hooker - how should they know and why would it even be their business as long as you are following the hotel's rules otherwise.
But really - Prostitution and Drug deals happen on city streets more commonly than anywhere else, I would suspect.
So why isn't the city liable?
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Which is exactly what we should expect from a politician these days. As long as we dont start telling them they are wrong and even keep rewarding their behavior by electing them, they have no incentive to stop being retards
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I understand...
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Re: I understand...
Fixed it for you.
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Henry McMaster is a Redlight runner, sue Henry for the Children!
I say we track down the offense and offender, and then sue Henry McMaster for facilitating it!
This is how Section 230 is interpreted.
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JAIL THE MAKERS OF CONCRETE!!!!
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Re: JAIL THE MAKERS OF CONCRETE!!!!
Your a terrible politician and you need a consultant. There is nothing more boring then concrete, wage a war on concrete and youll be lucky to get a paragraph on the back page of your locals metro section. You need to go after something "Sexy", something "new" and preferrably internet related so you can protect the children from the unkown hazards of freely exchanged ideas. Then my friend, then you have a pretend scourge worth fighting.
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Re: JAIL THE MAKERS OF CONCRETE!!!!
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Using the same logic as the AG of South Carolina I see... :)
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Thank you, I would not have had any idea what that joke was about were it not for your help!
/sarcasm
OK, seriously, thank you. That really made me laugh.
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I would like to announce my candidacy for Governer. I will be running on the anti-cloud computing terminology platform.
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now you my friend are a gifted politician . . . I mean the cloud, WTF is it . . . im already scared!
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"The storm must be stopped!"
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My cousins next door neighbors nephews brother heard some guys in Niger talking about Al Quida working with Hugo Chavez and ACORN to plan "yellow cake" attacks through the cloud . . .
"Dont Let the CLOUD become a Mushroom CLOUD" should be pretty effective.
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Re: Re: Cloud
Skynet, of course.
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Andre Bauer FTW!
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Prostitution still illegal??
Here in Portugal it's not really a recognized profession (so prostitutes don't pay taxes and have no social security), and brothels are illegal, but prostitution itself is not illegal. Prostitutes openly advertise on the classified ads of major daily newspapers, and of course online.
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Re: Prostitution still illegal??
Prostitution is NOT illegal in the United States, there is no Federal Law about it. It’s a states issue and Nevada for example does have legal prostitution (although not in Las Vegas which is a great example of the hypocritical dichotomy that is our society).
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Have you forgotten 911 already . . . why do you hate America so much. [ohh yeah this would be easy]
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The 452 page report which I read in an hour yesterday, goes on, stating that these insidious "clouds" that exist in the air above the country, thanks to totally unregulated wireless communications, are actually made up of copyrighted files, and have gotten so thick because of rampant filesharing that they, having been mistaken for birds, are what caused the airplane to crash into the Hudson when they swirled into the engines.
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South Carolina - That says it all
South Carolina - where facts don't matter, local and federal judges are bought and paid for years (generations?) in advance and politicians look up to the confederate flag ... and Rob Blagojevich.
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Re: South Carolina - That says it all
yeah if it wasnt for Texas, SC would easily be about the stupidest state in the union - judging by who they elect anyway. Although Alabama and Mississippi are pretty close. I mean does Mississippi still have a life long lobbyist as its governor LOL - talk about fox in the hen house - it would be like making Mike Tyson the house mother at your daughters boarding school . . . god those people are stupid there is no nice way to say it)
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Re: Re: South Carolina - That says it all
Think Diaper Dan Vitter and Dollar Bill Jefferson, if you don't know Vitter is the right wing family value guy who got re-elected after positive evidence emerged that he paid prostitutes to change his soiled nappy, and $Bill is the moron who barely lost re-election after the feds raided his Govt Office and his home to find 90K U.S. in his freezer in a fish stick box. He claims it is natural for people in Louisiana to keep that much cold cash on hand (state with less than 35k median income)
so lets not pull out them them "my state is worse than your state cards, Louisiana trumps all in stupidity"
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Re: South Carolina - That says it all
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Anti SC
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Just think if you had bough secure Chrysler bonds for your retirement and now you were being ask to take 30 cents on the dollar so that non secure creditors could get 100 cents on the dollar even though law guaranteed that you would be made hole first.
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And even if it didn't, there is no proof that man is causing this.
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This does not appear to be a fact-based individual
He is a politician for crying out loud! The facts don't mean anything!
The charges will never be brought unless the trial can be delayed until after the election. If CL was smart, they would bring a legal action to court, highly publicized, timed to coincide with just before the election. When the facts are brought out in court, it will kill his grandstanding.
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grandstanding politicians
He is a politician for crying out loud! The facts don't mean anything!
The charges will never be brought unless the trial can be delayed until after the election. If CL was smart, they would bring a legal action to court, highly publicized, timed to coincide with just before the election. When the facts are brought out in court, it will kill his grandstanding.And stop his advancement any higher in the food chain.Get a clue Mr. Attorney General!
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Go To Hell SC
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Go To Hell SC
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B: South Carolina is pretty cool, great golf courses.
How would you like it if in your town, there was a street where there were nude pictures up in store windows? Pictures of willies like the one posted here (but much smaller than mine)? How would you like it if your kids walked down that street? Should something like that be allowed?
That is what the Internet is. Sure, you can watch your kids to know what they do on the web, just like making sure they don't walk down that street, but should you have to?
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if (the hypothetical) you brought it into this world (or adopted it) it is up to YOU and YOU alone to guide what the child sees, does and experiences.
(the hypothetical) YOU cannot foist your lack of desire to supervise your child onto me or anyone else.
the pathetic part is that we can regulate driving a car, getting a drink, or getting married, but the most critical choice an adult can make (breeding a copy of itself) is not only completely unregulated, it takes less instinct (or skill) to spawn than it does to take care of a gold fish.
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Lets put SC in jail
(We're told that all existing prisons are overcrowded.)
VRP
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as a state AG he is 1 of 2 things elected or appointed as in both cases you do not need to know the law. same reason he can run for governor, does not need to know what to do just sound good to get the job. he sounds like the perfect politico.
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community standards
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Age Verify Erotic Services
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Re: Age Verify Erotic Services
1) it is not an age verification issue, the number of tweens buying prostitutes is abysmally small.
2) gift cards and prepaid debit cards can be gotten by anyone of any age, all they have to do is lie on the app to get it. oh and beat their parents to the mailbox.
3) registered sex offenders are certainly NOT the only group of people paying/posting/selling erotic services ads, in fact very few are! the hundreds of millions of pageviews on CL from around the globe tell ya that.
4) the issue is that a politician in SC is trying to grandstand and blame CL for prostitution, aiding before the fact, and abetting a crime. This despite constitutional law that protects them from such prosecution.
so please stay on topic and stop trying to advertise your blog. very lame.
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Age Verify Erotic Services
More on Age
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why do prisoners get to have facebook pages?
why do our incarcerated had access to the internet? and unfettered access at that!
they also have access to post print ads in magazines looking for a hook up, date or pen pal. DUH!
something is truly wrong with that concept.
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Craigslist people should Charge Christians with Hate Crimes!
I am broke, homeless, and I don't see any Movie Stars or Models chasing after ME, which proves that ALL Women are Prostitutes in some form or another. Women Marry and get into Relationships for MONEY. Not one Woman Dates Homeless Men as far as I know, cause where I live there are THOUSANDS of Homeless, and I never see them going on any Dates with the Models and Movie Stars and Female Power Players. So this Proves ALL Women are Prostitutes. Therefore trying to throw someone in Jail for something that is Common Practice among the Majority of Society is a Hate Crime.
Prosecute the Christians for Hate Crimes!
Secondly the Christians coin this Term "Predator" to imply that anyone who looks for a Date is a "Predator" because to the Christians Sex is Evil. So desiring Sex is also Evil which makes Dating Evil. So they try to damn and Outcast the Demons who try to Date because of their Distorted beliefs based on Lies and Fairy Tales. This is a Hate Crime! Prosecute the Christians for HATE CRIMES!
Christians also try to Demonize Photographers, even if they only do Swim Suit pics they call them Perverts and other words of Hate to try to demonize them. This is a Hate Crime, Prosecute the Christians for Hate Crimes!
In California the Christians influenced the Laws and Voted NO on Prop 8 Legalizing Discrimination against Gays and Lesbians. This is a HATE Crime! Prosecute the Christians for HATE CRIMES!
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A huge number of people aren't even clear as to why prostitution is illegal--if we dug into it, we'd find that it's just a holdover from the country's Puritanical roots without a public-good motivation--and that it of all things is getting the majority of law enforcement attention these days infuriates them.
And it should infuriate them! Sexual slavery is already quite illegal with or without the exchange of money, and there's something very wrong about a society that both grants women the right to abortion of account of reproductive freedom and produces most of the world's pornography for open distribution as a free-speech issue but rails against choosing sex as day labor.
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Craigslist regulation
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Craigslist regulation
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Ignorance
Idiot.
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Legalize it
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Craigslist Regulation
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Moron
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craigslist
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Atty General
one that likes a challenge.The one that was appointed to him is totally sorry and is scared of Mcmasters. My brothers constitutional rights have and are being violated in every way possible, and he wants to file millions of lawsuits in federal court if he can get a probono attorney,somebody needs to stop McMasters, and with help my brother can pull the rug right out from under him
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