Slashdot Mirror
Craigslist Fires Back Over Adult Services Accusations
Craigslist has fired back at South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster in an open letter defending the company's policies and procedures surrounding the much debated "adult services." Stating not only the measures that have been taken to minimize illegal behavior, CEO Jim Buckmaster suggests that Craigslist is doing much better at minimizing questionable ads than other major competitors like Yahoo!, Google, and others. "Mr McMaster, I strongly recommend you reconsider and retract your remarks, and positively affirm that you have no intention of launching criminal investigations aimed at any of these upstanding companies, because in truth none of them are deserving of such treatment. [...] We're willing to accept our share of criticism, but wrongfully accusing craigslist of criminal misconduct is simply beyond the pale. We would very much appreciate an apology at your very earliest convenience. As I'm sure would all of the other fine companies whose executives you've called out as criminals."
The problem with politicians is, well, that they exist as a profession.
Instead of having a dedicated, small group of individuals in charge of everything (leading to ridiculous situations like this, where they posture for the electorate), why not have anyone be as involved in government as they wish?
Sounds like somebody is setting himself up for a run at the Governor's Manson.
Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.
Kudos to Craigslist. Sex sells. They have done more than they should have to prevent this kind of activity on their site. The way I see it, they are keeping officers employed by busting the prostitutes and the people who use their services. Its a personal choice if you choose to use the services. they control their content but honestly stopping craigslist from have an adult section is gonna do absolutely nothing to stop prostitution in cities. There are plenty of other websites such as backpage or citypages that do the same exact thing at no charge and I've yet to see any of them make the news. The claim that the "prosititute" was killed because she posted on craigsiist is bogus. She's the one taking the chance by sleeping around and she'd do it whether or not craigslist existed or not. It's about time someone grew a pair and stood up to the corrupt legislatures in this country and told them to politely f*ck off.
If he were using this as a leg up to the Gov. position, then he's really barking up the wrong tree. Attempting to sanction (or shutdown) a free service in SC during an economic crunch would be stupid.
... when they refused to grow a pair and claim First Amendment protection, not to mention the safe-harbor provision of the CDA. Paternalistic, moralizing governors and DAs have no Constitutional basis to object to anything Craigslist was doing, and the company should have told them to STFU and GBTW.
But instead they tried to "negotiate," "compromise," and otherwise find a middle ground with religiously-motivated censors and nanny-statists.
Yeah. That always works. Because those sorts of people always go away and leave you in peace once you give in to their demands. <rolleyes>
Ah. So, you're calling Craigslist out for trying to be civil. Good man! We need more people flying right off the deep end without any sense of negotiation. We also need more stereotyping, darnit, because without that, we might be seen as a serious culture! We have to preserve our l33t, underground status as overreacting outsiders whom nobody should try to understand because we get in huge screaming fits over what the other 90% of the planet just doesn't give a rat's ass about!
Shame on you, Craigslist! Shame on you for trying to be civil! Next time somebody looks at you funny, break his/her nose to restore the balance!
Just look at the Yellow Pages for any moderately large city... it will have hundreds of ads for "escorts" and "escort agencies'. This kind of activity has been going on for ages, but no one ever made a big stink. Now that it's on the intewebs prosecutors somehow feel that there is cause for concern? I say, Quit wasting my tax money!
Especially when that free service is servicing the oldest profession; you know, the one that isn't going to go away no matter how illegal you make it.
Question everything
Actually, the GP poster has a point. It's not pretty, but there are a lot of people out there who see compromise as weakness. If you look at recent history of the Basque separatist movement, for example, as soon as there was some level of conciliation, the level of violence skyrocketed.
Part of it may also be that people who have lived for so long fighting a particular cause end up being more attached to the fight than the cause itself, and as soon as it looks like their way of life is threatened, they try to do things which encourage the fight to continue.
In this case, however, I feel it's a much baser motivation. Like a shark smelling blood, this guy decided he could have a little PR feeding frenzy to fuel his gubernatorial run. Silly AG, don't you know that a well-educated populace would never fall for such a thing?
The CB App. What's your 20?
Yup, we've all witnessed self-righteousness due to guilt
Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine -- Robert C. Gallagher
But Craigslist isn't committing the crime. They're providing a means of communication in the same way Google Gmail or AT&T do - or any Internet provider. And they should bear no more legal responsibility for the communications people make with their service than AT&T, Google, or Comcast do. To modify your examples, it would be like prosecuting the manufacturer of the car for letting people speed with it, or prosecuting the manufacturer of the Louisville Slugger that someone gets beaten with.
The sign of a good compromise is when both sides are unhappy. Just because you have the right to free speech, it doesn't always mean it is in your best interests to use it all the time. People are complaining about something even though it is in your rights you can always choose to back down too. Or are you the guy who never lets some one in front of you when the lanes are merging in the road.
Putting your self fully in the firing line. Espectially with "religiously-motivated censors and nanny-statists" is always a big fight. If they see that you can at least meet them half way they tend to back off a lot, so they can focus on the next big evil. Sure you not in the clear there will be some point where you need to draw the line. However to keep things running smooth it is easier to compromise.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Ads for firearms.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
Or like prosecuting the manufacturer of the handgun that ... oh wait. Never mind.
'The tyrant will always find pretext for his tyranny.' - Aesop's Fables
There's no point in arguing with -- much less negotiating or compromising with -- someone whose objection to your conduct is based on religious or moral grounds. They're not just going to give up because you tried to meet them in the middle; they're just going to wait until the time is right and then finish you off.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
By attempting to reason with unreasonable people and failing, you can more easily demonstrate to the rest of the world that they're unreasonable.
This is handy when you're dealing with, say, an elected official.
I am officially gone from
Where is this mythical well-educated populace? The average person seems to be deeply ignorant, uninterested in anything remotely political most of the time, and regularly falls for the outright lies made by many politicians when they are trying to get elected, but isn't motivated enough to call them on it after they win and fail to follow through.
The average person is incredibly stupid and uneducated. Quite frankly, any system that relies on ignorant, uneducated people electing politicians based on their understanding of issues is highly suspect. Sadly, its the best system we have :P
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
Shame on you, Craigslist! Shame on you for trying to be civil! Next time somebody looks at you funny, break his/her nose to restore the balance!
It's funny you should put it that way. People died so that the Bill of Rights wouldn't be open to this sort of "compromise."
Popular rights aren't the ones that need to be defended, now, are they?
Now that I cannot find any "erotic services", I'll have more time to read slashdot.
They elected, and then re-elected Bush. Now, what is it you were saying?
Well, Bush had the advantage of being consistent, even if his policies were disturbing. Kerry on the other hand appeared lost in trying to make everyone happy, but making few happy. People generally vote for someone who is firm in where they are going, than someone who isn't. You generally expect politicians to break promises, but when the politician isn't sure what is being promised, then you have real issues.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
REALITY is the two wolves still being better armed.
Sorry, but the trope that if everybody just armed themselves to the teeth we'd somehow be safer and better able to protect ourselves from bullies and tyrants completely falls apart when you consider that the bullies and tyrants get to be armed to the teeth too, plus there are more of them, and they are usually bigger and more dangerous.
If you really believe that unless you have a gun you are in terrible danger of life and limb, that doesn't make you a heroic champion of the Second Amendment, it makes you a coward.
Try not to take me more seriously than I take myself.