May 22, 2009

State v. Craigslist: Showdowns and ho-downs

The battle between Craigslist and legal officials over adult ads is getting wackier by the minute. Pull up a seat and grab some popcorn

I don't know about you, but I'm finding the whole showdown between Craigslist and the state attorneys general over online "adult" ads endlessly entertaining. In case you've been paying attention to actual news and somehow missed it, here's the story so far.

First, Craigslist caved in to the outcry over the alleged "Craigslist killer" and offered to make nominal changes to its racier listings, swapping "adult" for "escort" in the title and promising to do a better job of keeping out the $2 whores.

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No matter -- South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster still threatened to bring criminal charges against Craigslist if it didn't shut down all adult-oriented advertising in SC.

That prompted Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster to fire back with a blistering blog post, which included helpful links to 11 other sources of ads for not-exactly-legal prostitution in the Palmetto State, followed two days later by a lawsuit requesting a restraining order against McMaster.

(And if the whole McMaster/Buckmaster name similarity has you flummoxed, you're not alone. From now on I'll just refer to them as Masters of their Domains, No. 1 and No. 2.)

In response to the suit, MOD1 declares "a victory for law enforcement and for the people of South Carolina" [PDF]. Right. Just like the South declared victory at Appomattox in 1865.

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Carl Street 22-May-09 1:58pm
1 reply
Personally, I am VERY MUCH in favor of outlawing bozos -- startng with any and all government officials; but especially those of the "father knows best" stripe. Clowns INDEED!!!
katahdin 22-May-09 2:13pm
>>those of the "xxxxxx knows best" stripe I wholehearted agree that Obama should be outlawed !
potterbigdog 26-May-09 10:59am
wtf the guy is just looking for a piece of the action and since cl is not getting any he ain't going to pay. Geez next thing ya know they will try and ban porn on the net. On the subject of clowns I had one girl friend who really loved the clown suit. see it here: http:///www.youtube.com/abc423c9Hmtl (just kidding)
Luteguy 27-May-09 5:09am
"...college students trying to make ends meet."

Where did this phrase come from originally? I'm a systems engineer in his late 40s "trying to make ends meet." Isn't everyone in the world "trying to make ends meet"? That phrase is no justification for anything, good or bad. Yeesh. Clowns creep me out too, along with that freaky monster in the Jack in the Box commercials.
ssenneka 29-May-09 12:39pm
The sad part of all this is that the young woman who was murdered in Minnesota was responding to a Craig’s List post for a babysitter. How is jumping on “Adult content” going to help prevent that sort of thing? Won’t. How will it help all the self-serving politicians (was I redundant there?) get gobs of publicity for themselves? Well, that’s another story.

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