Has Blumenthal fallen under the craigslist spell?

re: (2nd part of 5th paragraph from bottom): "We're beginning with Craigslist because it's the biggest and one of the most apparent -- and frankly, one of the more cooperative. They've been cooperative from the early stages of our investigation."

now, *that's* funny... isn't he the same guy who said: (3rd paragraph): "I'm astonished and appalled by Craigslist's refusal to recognize the reality of prostitution on it's Web site - despite advertisements containing graphic photographs and hourly rates, and widespread public reports of prostitutes using the site" also...(4th paragraph) "[craigslist] has a moral if not possible legal responsibility to assure that it avoids serving as a conduit for prostitution and other illegal activity. My office will weigh all options, including possible legal action, if the site fails to curb content clearly prohibited by its rules."

Delia

P.S. I shudder imaging what kind of response does Blumenthal get from those ... not as cooperating as craigslist... must be something like this: "Get lost, Rick! go bother someone else, ok?" :) D.

(craigslist prostitution) Congratulations Blumenthal!

I was wondering what was going on with this! (by all indication) none of this would have happened if Blumenthal wouldn't have kept after them...D.

(craigslist prostitution) people worth reading and quoting

Hi, Mark! (7th comment)

Trench is not bad... I mean, back when he started his blog I was glad someone else was taking a critical view of craigslist and keeping it up but I don't find his analysis particularly insightful.

Here are a couple of people I found worth reading and quoting on the subject of craigslist prostitution: Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (the existence of craigslist's erotic services "increases traffic and generates a number of users [to the site], which in turn enhances their revenue);" Steve Diamond, business law professor at Santa Clara University ("Newmark and Buckmaster are driven mostly by self-interest") and University of B.C. associate law Prof. Janine Benedet ("there is an argument they are really sort of pimping").

Take care!

Delia

what's the overall long-term impact of craigslist?

(on the state of Connecticut, for instance... but it's bound to be similar all over the place)

as far as I can tell craigslist isn't providing anything that isn't already there... it's just putting things on the internet and walks away with loads of millions (especially in the long run) -- money that isn't benefiting the state of Connecticut (or any other place where craigslist exists) at all...

don't the people of Connecticut get some free value out of it? it appears that such gains are only at the individual level -- not when considering the community as a whole -- and for trivial things (e.g. a person can get rid of a couch by posting it on craigslist instead of donating it to Goodwill; a business owner can find employees without placing an ad in the newspaper and thus helping support local journalism), and only for as long as it is in craigslist's interest not to charge... (#4)

In the mean time news organizations will be negatively impacted, crime will become easier to commit (some of it, such as prostitution, will be imported from out of state) and the back-market-like alternative to regulated business (bye bye non discrimination for instance) is allowed to flourish... --> so what is the overall long-term impact on the places where craigslist exists? I would think it's bound to be negative!

Delia

(Mozilla help: what's the long-term effect of craigslist?)

(prostitution) ConsumerAffairs.Com: "Blumenthal has his facts wrong, craigslist argues"... *wrongly*!

MORE: more non-sense from craigslist on the official craigslist blog (craigslist should be prevented from continuing to use the dot org domain and making it difficult for people to realize it has been for profit -- NOT a dot org -- for a very long time...) D.
...
re: " Craigslist is a law-abiding company that is trying very hard to do the right thing, while also trying very hard to do the right thing, and the world at large," he said. "Craigslist does not have tens of thousands of employees, as do other large internet sites. The lack of this overhead is the reason that craigslist can provide its valuable public services at such low cost and without paid advertising." (2nd paragraph under "law-abiding")

#1. "Craigslist is a law-abiding company" --> that remains to be seen, Blumenthal said he will look into legal means of making craigslist effectively control their prostitution problem and there are plenty of other legal issues that could be raised

#2. "trying very hard to do the right thing" --> by self-handicaping themselves and "saving" more or less 100 million this year??? while continuing to claim to be a "community service"? (they should have stayed a non-profit, a foundation, and used that money to address the serious problems and provide adequate customer service and improvements to the community that has built craigslist and continues to make it work)

#3. "providing a very valuable free public service for the people of Connecticut" [my emphasis] --> right! untill the Conecticut market will hit critical mass and then... they'll start charging! (for that "public service") ... just see what happened with the 11 or so cities that already hit critical mass for jobs and with New York City for real estate...

#4. "Craigslist does not have tens of thousands of employees, as do other large internet sites. The lack of this overhead is the reason that craigslist can provide its valuable public services at such low cost and without paid advertising" --> Hahaha... rather, the lack of employing and adequate number of people is the reason that craigslist can... walk away with around $100 million this year! while continuing to claim to be a "public service" and providing as little customer service and improvements as they can get away with...

Delia

P.S. I hope Blumenthal sees right through all that BS and does something about it... D.

(prostitution) as though Jim didn't know...

MORE: again, Michael Arrington's post is disappointing... I'm having a hard time believing he isn't getting it... is he just disingenuous? D.
...
what defamation?

"Blumenthal says he has yet to hear back from Craigslist since sending his letter but in response to their statement, he said the personal-ad feature 'increases traffic and generates a number of users [to the site], which in turn enhances their revenue. If they have additional information, we would be happy to review that.' (yeah, pretty much what I thought...)

(prostitution) Jim up to his old tricks again: pulling percentages out of his hat...

Jim (8th paragraph):"Misuse of Craigslist for illegal purposes is absolutely unacceptable to us. This month we implemented new screening procedures for erotic service ads, which have dramatically improved compliance with our terms of use, and reduced the volume of such ads by up to 80 percent."[my emphasis]

Delia

P.S. finally, somebody who's in position to do something about it understands what's going on...

Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal (3rd paragraph): "I'm astonished and appalled by Craigslist's refusal to recognize the reality of prostitution on it's Web site - despite advertisements containing graphic photographs and hourly rates, and widespread public reports of prostitutes using the site" also...(4th paragraph) "[craigslist] has a moral if not possible legal responsibility to assure that it avoids serving as a conduit for prostitution and other illegal activity. My office will weigh all options, including possible legal action, if the site fails to curb content clearly prohibited by its rules." D.