Craigslist

Remember all the hoopla earlier this year when attorneys general from several states were getting bent out of shape over craigslist's erotic services ads? A sideline to that story was a lawsuit that had been filed in March against craigslist by the Cook County Sheriff in Chicago.

The suit said craigslist's erotic services ads were creating "a public nuisance." Filed by Sheriff Thomas Dart, the suit sought both to bar the site from running such ads and to recoup prostitution-related law enforcement costs.

Yesterday, a federal court in Illinois threw out the complaint, asserting that "intermediaries are not culpable for 'aiding and abetting' their customers who misuse their service to commit unlawful acts."

"The phrase 'adult,' even in conjunction with 'services,' is not unlawful in and of itself nor does it necessarily call for unlawful content," says the decision.

"While we accept as true for purposes of this motion plaintiff's allegation that users routinely flout Craigslist's guidelines, it is not because Craigslist has caused them to do so," the court ruled.

Interestingly, unlike during the attorneys general fracas, when craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster had plenty to say, today's post on the craigslist blog is quite tame. It simply announces the judge's decision and points to an analysis of the case on the Electronic Frontier Foundation's blog.

More on the motivation behind the Cook County Sheriff's suit, after the jump.

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First she just turned them into watercolors for herself. Then she started posting them to her blog. Then she started selling copies on Etsy. And now she's talking book deal.

The New York Times has a story about Brooklyn editorial and children's book illustrator Sophie Blackall who's been turning entries from Craigslist's "Missed Connections" section into works of art.

"These illustrations have recurring themes of love, loss, regret and hope," Blackall tells the Times. "Even the most grim postings have this little kernel of unflagging hope which is just so lovely and optimistic."

On Monday, Stores Magazine released its list of the most popular online retail sites. For the first time in the three-year history of the poll, Craigslist was on it.

The number was reached after a survey of about 8,600 consumers about their e-commerce stores of choice, reports Crain's New York. The survey was not multiple-choice; respondents selected only the sites that came to mind.

Craigslist ranked No. 25 of 50. Considering that the San Francisco-based company spends virtually no money to advertise its retailing prowess, it's an impressive finish.

"For Craigslist to come up would really suggest they're pretty top of mind these days," said Susan Reda, executive editor at Stores, in the Crain's New York report. "There is still a desire to spend and acquire, but the mindset has changed about how to acquire."

She was referring, of course, to the bargain-hunting and used goods that are a Craigslist staple.

Craigslist logged more than 55 million unique visitors in July, 3 percent more than in June and 38 percent more than a year ago.

It's like the Hatfields and McCoys in Silicon Valley . . . if the Hatfields had been on the McCoys' board of directors.

San Francisco-based Craigslist Inc. has accused eBay -- which placed executives on the Craigslist board in 2004 after buying a 28-percent stake in the company -- of using that positioning to obtain classified information, then utilizing it to start a competing classified advertising site, Kijiji.com. (Craigslist claims it was given only 10 days' notice about Kijiji's U.S. launch.)

San Jose-based eBay says that Craigslist execs changed the company's stock structure to reduce eBay's stake to less than 25 percent, thus eliminating it from the board room.

Lawsuits have been filed on both sides. Bloomberg offers an extensive report.

(For what it's worth, Craigslist had 22.2 million users last year; Kijiji had about 1.7 million.)

The new issue of Wired wonders about craigslist. About the fact that it has no design to speak of and only the simplest interface. About how its content is entirely user generated, and revolves mostly around unwanted junk and, to judge by the South Carolina AD, sexual come-ons. Yet somehow, it's the nation's most popular job-search site, without benefit of recommendations or any sort of social networking, and tops for a rental housing-hunt, as well.

Besides offering nearly all of its features for free, says the article -- which clocks in at a robust 5,300 words -- the site "scorns advertising, refuses investment, ignores design, and does not innovate," yet has no "serious rivals."

"It is the most important community site going and yet the most underdeveloped," writes Gary Wolf. "Think of any Web feature that has become popular in the past 10 years: Chances are craigslist has considered it and rejected it."

Wolf goes on to detail some interesting facts about company founder Craig Newmark and his San Francisco-based company:

First, there was the whole South Carolina-says-Craigslist-is-fostering-prostitution-in-our-otherwise-chaste-community imbroglio. San Francisco-based Craigslist responded by hiring monitors to police ads in its adult section, and disallowed those with overt offers of sex for hire or nude photos.

On Sunday, though, the Chronicle -- in the face of continued criticism by a variety of state attorneys general -- wondered whether those ads actually went away or simply became more discreet, with language that now simply alludes to offers of sex rather than presents it outright.

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster responded that the revamped adult ads can only mention legal services such as massage or exotic dancing -- not to mention that whatever's there is routinely tamer than the ads found in the back of many cities' weekly newspapers.

Even Buckmaster confessed that he couldn't do much about vague language (not that he'd want to): "We are no more able to read the minds of people placing ads than are classifieds editors at newspapers and the Yellow Pages."

Judge for yourself, here. (Warning: Potentially vague adult content.)

Craig Newmark, as you might know, is a big supporter of the troops, lending his weight to such organizations as Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and writing frequently about veterans issues on his personal blog.

Which might be why today he found himself addressing the question of the purported Marine ban of social media. If you recall, reporters of all stripes were atwitter earlier this week with the news that the Marine Corps had banned the use of Facebook, YouTube, and the like.

Well, as it turns out, that's not quite accurate.

The Marines do ban the use of social media on certain secure networks within the Corps. And, for the record, this wasn't even a new policy, just a restatement of long-standing rules.

As for the use of social media elsewhere, for personal as well as professional reasons? The Marines are all for it.

Newmark linked to a post on NextGov.com which linked to an offical response from the Corps to all the hullabaloo, which stated:

There are numerous commands who currently access social media through other internet service providers. This message benefits those commands by establishing a formal waiver process for access to social networking sites via the Marine Corps' network.

Marines are encouraged to tell their stories on social networking sites, using personal accounts, remembering the importance of operational security and that they are Marines at all times.

Because BayNewser strives to offer equal-opportunity religious technology discussion, we bring you news of CHRISTools.com, a Craigslist for the Bible-toting set.

Apparently the South's battle over the proliferation of licentious material on Craigslist didn't end with grand-standing attorneys general. Turns out there are some in the Christian community who were similarly perturbed.

Now, under the rubric of "uniting the Body of Christ around the world," one can buy items ranging from Heaven's Postcards to a John Deere S340 lawn tractor.

"Recent legal battles over Craigslist allowing adult orientated classifieds to be shown on its sites has caused an uproar within some of the online Christian community," says a CHRISTools press release. "Some argue that these styles of listings may encourage prostitution, and create an atmosphere that isn't as family-friendly as some would like. Whichever way you look at it, it seems that an option is needed."

South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster clearly has some mixed feelings about Craigslist. First came his pornography charges against Craigslist for the site's erotic-services listings. Then, when Craisgslist CEO Jim Buckmaster threatened to counter with a lawsuit, McMaster welcomed the action, calling it "good news."

Yesterday, however, he predicted "destruction" and "chaos" if the suit went through. Doesn't sound like good news to us.

McMaster filed a motion in federal court Tuesday, asking for the suit's dismissal on grounds that he wouldn't be able to effectively pursue the San Francisco-based company, and that the landscape would turn into "the online equivalent of the 'Wild West,' " according to the Charleston Regional Business Journal, "where only federal marshals are allowed to uphold the law."

Predictably perhaps, Craigslist and eBay staffers have been playing whack-a-mole today, trying to shut down offers to sell tickets to tomorrow's Michael Jackson memorial—some for thousands of dollars.

To wit, here's a recent set of listings from the Los Angeles Craigslist tickets category. You'll notice that enterprising scalpers are dropping their email addresses in the location field, so that even after a posting has been flagged for removal (and visitors can no longer read its contents), buyers can still track sellers down.

After the jump, was Craig Newmark whack-a-moling from London?

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