Attorneys General Upset That Craigslist Is Profiting From Procedure He Forced Craigslist To Put In Place
from the banging-your-head-on-the-virtual-wall dept
The grandstanding of some Attorneys General never ceases -- even when they created the "problem" they're now grandstanding against. Case in point: Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and his crusade against Craigslist. Two years ago, Blumenthal blamed Craigslist for prostitution ads that appear on the site. Blumenthal, as the state Attorney General should know about the law, right? He should know that he has no legal basis for this complaint, and that under Section 230 of the CDA, Craigslist is not liable for the actions of its users. In fact, legal attempts to pin the blame for such ads on Craigslist have been quickly dismissed on just those grounds. Even more importantly, from a common sense standpoint, Blumenthal should realize that when police work with Craigslist in partnership, they're able to use it as an effective tool to track down lawbreakers who use the site.But that doesn't get headlines.
Instead, Blumenthal, based on no legal basis whatsoever, used his soapbox (along with some other attorneys general) to get Craigslist to changing its policies on "adult" advertisements. Whereas, previously, those ads had been free, Craigslist now required that anyone putting up such ads pay for them with a valid credit card, eliminating many of the ads and making it much, much easier to track down whoever placed them in the first place. You would think that would make the AGs happy. Six months later, however, the AGs were still upset, and got Craigslist to change again, boosting the fee on such ads from $5 to $10 and reviewing more of the ads.
Almost all of these moves came in response to public posturing and baseless legal threats from Blumenthal. So what's he doing now?
He's apparently doing more public posturing and issuing more baseless legal threats, because Craigslist stands to make an awful lot of money from these ads -- the very same ads that Craigslist only started charging for because of Blumenthal's pressure:
"I believe Craigslist acted irresponsibly when it unilaterally decided to keep the profits from these posts," Mr. Blumenthal wrote in the letter...Yes, and I believe Blumenthal acted irresponsibly when he put bogus grandstanding pressure on Craigslist to put in place the tollbooth in the first place. At what point does he recognize that Craigslist isn't the target here. It's the people using Cragslist to break the law -- and that Craigslist is more than willing to help law enforcement track down those law breakers?
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: attorney general, connecticut
Companies: craigslist
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Given it to Blumenthal?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Given it to Blumenthal?
Why are you surprised?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Given it to Blumenthal?
Bah!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Given it to Blumenthal?
He uses the term unilaterally as if Craigslist needed to confer with the AG before deciding to keep profits. If that quote was not taken out of context then it's basically the AG asking for a donation of cash. There has to be more.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Given it to Blumenthal?
So Craigslist was being a normal corporation and taking money from one of its pockets and moving to another pocket and calling it charity.
If I donate money to my own charity, don't I get to claim it as an expense to reduce my taxable income? And then I get to accept it as a tax free donation in my other hand. Not a bad deal.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Given it to Blumenthal?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Given it to Blumenthal?
Citation? Not that I don't believe you, but if that's correct it completely changes my opinion on this matter....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Given it to Blumenthal?
It's sort of true. When they made the original announcement (the $5 charge) in late 2008, they promised that money would go to charities related to these issues. A few months later, when the various AGs who had agreed to the original deal started complaining that it wasn't enough, Craigslist upped the fee to $10, promised to hire people to monitor posts and said that it would no longer *say* how all the money would be used. That was mainly because it realized it needed to use some of that money to hire people to monitor posts -- and, separately, that as a private company, it had no need to tell anyone what it did with its money. They never said they wouldn't contribute to such groups any more. The decision was based on the need to use that money to fund the new jobs monitoring those feeds.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re: Given it to Blumenthal?
1. At $5, they agreed to give the money to charity
2. The AGs bitched and got them to change the arrangement
3. Under new arrangement, they promised nothing
4. Dark Helmet no longer has a problem with Craig's List
5. ???
6. PROFIT!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Given it to Blumenthal?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Hmmm...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Hmmm...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Two things ...
dont corporations tend to keep the profits they earn?
and what a silly little man.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Why don't you just tell me the name of the movie you want to see?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
election
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/nyregion/07blumenthal.html
Paying for your own advertising is expensive. Why not get your name in the paper some other way!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
And Furthermore
"...the correct use of those funds is in my campaign coffers."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
American Dream...
Maybe one day we can finally grow up and realize that sex isn't dirty in America.
I always love when politicians fight against adult services. Maybe they just see too much of themselves???
Freedom
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: American Dream...
It's fun when it is though!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Its like the "teach a man to fish...." proverb in reverse. If there is a significant impact against crime then that means they won't have their soapbox to stand on to complain thus resulting in not as many headlines. Sadly I think its true if Craigslist were used effectively AGs would have to find some other "cause" to get attetion with. They don't care about punishing crooks they care about getting attention which translates into money, votes, power, status, etc...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
so mr blumenthal, where DID you get that $50million for your election costs?
"oh THAT....its from adverts for anal, fisting, and one lady who does something very interesting with a potato masher.........".
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Dumb a$$
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
*sigh* Again...
I've notice a majority of crimes happen on concrete & asphalt--obviously these substances are a detriment to society given the number of crimes they assist. He should be working on removing these far more insidious hazards!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
It's no surprise,
"This thing, though thanks to cooperation from everyone involved, has never been easier to investigate, is a problem! Won't someone think of the children, who thanks to exposure to technology since birth, may actually make them more savvy to the possible dangers of this issue than we are!"
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
It's Connecticut. I imagine that moral panics and WASPs go together like peanut butter and jelly....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Granted, this is usually more prevalent within large corporations, but lawyers and governments can be subject to this phenomenon, too. Otherwise, how can you possibly explain Joe Biden?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
I have a state-full (California) of Elected IDIOTS.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: elected idiots
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Spitzer part deux
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Email
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Marios boy
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Perhaps other 'illicit' auction sites... they do in fact exist, I found one when I previously worked for a law firm.. lol
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Yeah what the hell where they thinking, turning that into a revenue stream when they clearly should have ear marked that money for the reelection campaign, like Mr. Blu's. Here he went out of his way to help them create a revenue stream and they didn't pony up his cut.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Party Affiliation
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Party Affiliation
Funny, I don't see you complaining when it's a Republican party affiliation that is not stated.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Party Affiliation
Yes. We don't mention party affiliation either way, unless it's central to the story (such as a PARTY doing something). If it's just an individual politician, we don't mention their affiliation at all.
Otherwise we get idiots arguing over partisan politics rather than the issue.
If you want a perfect example of a very similar story involving a Republican Attorney General upset at Craigslist, look here:
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090506/0156594762.shtml
Nearly identical story, accept the AG is a Republican. Notice what's not there? Party affiliation. We don't mention it if it's not part of the story to keep people from making everything partisan.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Who is worth electing
When was the last time you truly respected and admired a person in government from CT (state or federal)?
No one seems to believe in individual liberty anymore. If they do they sure as hell aren't running for office in either party.
Blumenthal deserves a worthy competitor, a Republican who will rake him over the coals for his BS. Hopefully such a candidate will step forward to run against him. I have little confidence in his current competitors.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
When Craigslist originally started charging for the ads, they donated that money to charity.
The "article" pulls Blumenthal's quote out of context.
What he is referring to is not Craigslist making money, but when Craigslist decided to stop giving the money from those ads to charity.
The point stands, but this is a poorly written piece that shows why internet sites and their "articles" are rarely regarded as journalism.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Craigslist
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]