And Of Course: Grandstanding Anti-Craigslist Politicians Still Not Satisfied
from the no-surprise-there dept
Well, this one was rather easy to predict. Way back in November, after coming under pressure from various grandstanding state Attorneys General (who seem wholly unfamiliar with Section 230 of the CDA), Craigslist caved in to pressure (despite no legal basis requiring them to do so), and it changed the way its erotic services section worked. The various AGs claimed they were satisfied. But it took all of a few months before some misguided news report showed that people were misusing Craigslist again, and suddenly these AGs sensed an opportunity to get press... so they went on the offensive again, blaming Craigslist for the actions of its users. It makes for a good headline.Once again, in May, Craigslist caved again and further changed how the site worked and handled "adult" type ads. It also showed that the ads on its site were a lot less graphic than those found on many sites run by traditional newspapers. But, suing the local newspaper doesn't generate headlines like suing Craigslist. And, given that it did such a good job generating press (and got Craigslist to cave when it didn't need to), you had to assume that it wouldn't take long for politicians to start complaining again.
And... here we go. Connecticut's AG Richard Blumenthal, who has milked the bogus Craigslist story for a while, along with Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who sued Craigslist earlier this year, have both come out to once again grandstand against Craigslist and insist that the company still isn't doing enough.
Seriously. Can someone send either of these gentlemen a copy of Section 230 of the CDA, along with a nice side dish of common sense. To wit:
- It is not Craigslist that is the problem. It is the users of the site who are advertising prostitution. They are the ones violating the law. Not Craigslist.
- Not only that, but Craigslist is very cooperative with law enforcement officials in helping them track down those who break the law via the site. Plenty of law enforcement officials have figured this out and know to use Craigslist as a tool to help them crack down on prostitution.
- Cracking down on Craigslist doesn't slow down or prevent the illegal activity at all. Those who are involved in prostitution (i.e., the actual law breaking) are still out there, and are quick to find other sources in which to advertise.
- So cracking down on Craigslist is blaming the messenger -- and making it more difficult to really crack down on prostitution, by driving it further underground.
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Filed Under: grandstanding, politicians, richard blumenthal, tom dart
Companies: craigslist
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Attorney Generals - the new legal bullies
Where in God's name do they find these people??? And how the hell do they get into office??? Their kneepads must be worn out.
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The answer is traffic.
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Re:
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Add this to the list right under "Getting a Lewinsky".
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Here's another one: You drop your IQ to below 90, vote yourself hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary each year, stomp on the little guys, then grab any headlines you can and make a big deal out of it. We could call that "Getting politicianed".
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Attorney Generals, sigh...
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They don't care
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Typo?
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Correction
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Re: Correction
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Re: Re: Correction
Yup, it was a typo. Meant CDA in both.. oops. Fixed now.
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Misunderstanding their objectives
Reducing prostitution is not the objective (Politicos are the working girl/guy best customers after all), getting in the headlines looking proactive is
Thus common sense says: Sue Craiglist
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Conflict of Interest
I'll give you 3 guesses as to why the papers aren't taking a fair look at this, but you'll only need 1...
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RE: Misunderstanding their objectives
Reducing prostitution is not the objective (Politicos are the working girl/guy best customers after all), getting in the headlines looking proactive is
Thus common sense says: Sue Craiglist
Not really. It's more a witch hunt. If you look at the Pirate Bay judgement, the operators of the site had no copyrighted information. They merely *pointed* to file locations at other sites, but there was never any actual pirated content on their servers. Hyperlinks are all you need to get arrested.
It's like standing on a street corner and someone comes up and asks which person out of a group of ten is a drug dealer. You happen to point him out, but you don't have any affiliation with the dealer, you don't know him, or even know for sure if he even has drugs... but you pointed to him. So now you go to jail just for picking him out of a crowd.
If you look at some of the filesharing sites like Mediafire, there are loads of copyrighted material. But the content isn't removed for weeks or even months because all the company has to say is they police their servers closely and remove any content that's reported. Nobody goes after the company. They go after the uploaders.
Peoples' lives hang in the balance because politicians and the media make a big stink about it. Plain and simple. Get them to publicize the story, and you'll see action happen. In the end, the only objectives politicians care about are keeping their jobs by getting votes. It's what keeps them alive.
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craigslist part at fault
Craigslist caved in too quickly and too easily that now everyone with an agenda of their own can go and make a lot of noise and get some press. Bad first move eh Craigslist? That why when kidnapping happens in some countries, negotiators try to talk themselves out of it instead of filling kidnapper's demands. If you satisfied the demands too easily, guess what, MORE kidnapping will occur, NOT LESS. Criminals learn really fast that they can get whatever they want by kidnapping, and this is basically what's happening to Craigslist right now.
If Craigslist fought hard when the first incident happened, all these people with NO LEGAL GROUND will lose badly, and damage their own reputation. Heck, if craigslist have fought hard, the first incident probably won't even make it to court since it's obvious they'll loose. That'll make them think twice before bringing these kind of garbage to the public.
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Re:
The money that made from previous Erotic section were donated to Charity 100%.
The new adult section revenue goes to Craigslist 100%. And they're making at least 13 million just from the adult section..
not sure if extra 13million is a mistake
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But CL shares the blame
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Funny
Funny, huh? Maybe Sheriff Dart is actually trying to promote prostitution.
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Re: Funny
:)
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Re: Re: Funny
If you were from Cook County you'd understand how laughable this is. You have the Chicago Police Dept. AND the Cook County Sherrif's dept. for all the jurisdiction's either outside of the City in Cook County or theoretically outside of CPD jurisdiction (state highways, whatever).
Unfortunately, since the CPD really don't pay much attention to jurisdiction and outnumber the CCSD about 20:1, this is all rather academic.
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Is it the MONEY that is illegal?
Or is it the SEX that is illegal?
Why is it any different that meeting someone, buying them a hamburger and then having sex with them? Just read the below from WiKi! $100,000 JUST FOR A LICENSE??? What if a county had 10 of these? That's a bunch of money each year to use on a budget! Never mind the taxes....
Prostitution is only an ugly thing because nobody governs it. This is one of those things that if governed and regulated (clean health cards for disease screening, taxes paid on services, etc) then why not? How many of YOU had sex within the last week? How many of you paid someone for a service? Why isn't THAT illegal?
It has survived in Nevada for soooooo long because the government is getting sooooo much money from the brothels!
Stop fighting what is natural in life...SEX. who knows, maybe it would save marriages, reduce unwanted pregnancies and unwanted babies and stimulate the economy. Right now, I would guess there is millions and millions of dollars being spent on "Craigslist" hookers, why not use some of that cash flow just as if someone was buying a pack of smokes or a case of beer? Tax it at 90%!
From WiKi:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostitution_in_Nevada
Under Nevada state law, any county with a population under 400,000, as of the last decennial census,[13] is allowed to license brothels if it so chooses.[6] Incorporated towns and cities in counties that allow prostitution may regulate the trade further or prohibit it altogether.
As of 2009, prostitution is illegal under state law in Clark County (which contains Las Vegas) and under county or municipal law in Washoe County (which contains Reno), Carson City (an independent city), Douglas County, and Lincoln County. The other 12 Nevada counties permit licensed brothels in certain specified areas or cities [4], with the exception of Eureka County, which has no law on the books either permitting or prohibiting licensed brothels.[citation needed] All 12 of these rural counties have had at least one legal brothel in operation subsequent to 1971, but many of these brothels were financially unsuccessful or ran afoul of State health regulations. As of 2009, only 8 of these counties have active brothels, while the other 4 (Churchill County, Esmeralda County, Eureka County, and Pershing County) no longer do.
The precise licensing requirements vary by county. License fees for brothels range from an annual $100,000 in Storey County to an annual $200 in Lander County. Licensed prostitutes must be at least 21 years old, except in Storey County and Lyon County (where the minimum age is 18).
Nevada law requires that registered brothel prostitutes be tested weekly (by a cervical specimen) for gonorrhea and Chlamydia trachomatis, and monthly for HIV and syphilis[14]; furthermore, condoms are mandatory for all oral sex and sexual intercourse. Brothel owners may be held liable if customers become infected with HIV after a prostitute has tested positive for the virus.[15] Women work a legally mandated minimum of nine days for each work period.[16] Post-op transsexuals and men cannot become prostitutes because of the cervical specimen requirement. [17]
Nevada has laws against engaging in prostitution outside of licensed brothels, against encouraging others to become prostitutes, and against living off the proceeds of a prostitute.
For many years, Nevada brothels were restricted from advertising their services in counties where brothel prostitution is illegal; however, this state law was overturned in 2007.[10]
In June 2009, Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons signed the most stringent punishments nationwide for child prostitution and pandering. The Assembly Bill 380, which allows for fines of $500,000 for those convicted of trafficking prostitutes younger than 14 and $100,000 for trafficking prostitutes ages 14 to 17. Both the House and the Senate unanimously approved the bill, that will go into effect October 1, 2009
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Re:
Better question: Why do you seem to think it is?
Is it the MONEY that is illegal?
Or is it the SEX that is illegal?
Neither one individually. It's sex for money that's illegal (most places). Unless you have a long term contract (otherwise know as a marriage), that is.
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People always get the internet wrong
No. And don't give me any bs that Craig's List is a company and makes money from some of the ads placed, they do not ask people to misuse their system and should not be held accountable for those who do.
Someone needs to tell these AGs to go f**k themselves w/the stupid horse they rode in on, because my guess is you couldn't even pay someone to do that.
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Politicians & Craig's List
Show some of your own-call them what they-out of touch with the real world. Unfortunately, it really won't matter what you call them, because the underpaid flunky whose job it is to monitor on-line comments about the said politician will simply ignore the ones his or her boss doesn't want to see, i.e. those that don't agree with his or her prejudice...
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As for Dart, his detectives are conducting sting operations and making arrests.
Soooo... if they get CraigsList to stop the ads, what's going to happen to their sting operations?
The acts will still happen, but Dart won't know about them because they're not on CraigsList.
Go fig!
Use the tools you fool!
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Anti-Craigslist
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