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Craigslist Shielded From Prosecution In SC
viyh writes with an update to the ongoing legal troubles faced by Craigslist over their adult-services ads. According to CNN, a South Carolina judge has told the office of the state's Attorney General, Henry McMaster, to cease their efforts to bring criminal charges against the operators of Craigslist.
"On Friday, Judge Weston Houck granted Craigslist's request for a temporary restraining order preventing McMaster and his employees from 'initiating or pursuing [any] prosecution against Craigslist or its officers and employees in relation to content posted by third parties on Craigslist's Web site' until the court rules on the merits of the site's lawsuit. Craigslist's lawsuit cites an interview McMaster gave to Fox News on Monday, in which he likened the site 'to a hotel or motel owner that knows prostitution is going on on their premises and fails to do anything about it especially after having been told.'"
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I just dropped the obama kids off at the pool.
Come help us protect the innocent Habbo citizens from the AIDS infestation.
Since when do judges get to decide who can be prosecuted? The case may be unfounded, but this complete corruption of the legal system is rediculous.
Are people on these adult sites asking for money in their personal ads?
With the sheer volume of ads on craigslist, how can anybody expect them to moderate everything on there. Isn't it easier and far more just for craigslist to take a neutural stance and let the justice system do it's job on a neutural basis. It's my understanding anyway that service providers are not responsible of the content of their websites anyway if they do not provide content under the safe harbor provisions of the communications decency act. Craigslist has already been granted immunity for hosting descriminatory housing ads. I'd be willing to bet they can get out of this too using the same legislation.
If Henry McMaster liken Craigslist to a hotel with ho's then what was he doing there? Henry McMaster may find his stuff listed on Craigslist soon.
No matter how other people said,all of people Should be determined by law,People is not laws!! http://www.nowgoal.com/17.shtml
in which [McMaster] likened the site "to a hotel or motel owner that knows prostitution is going on on their premises and fails to do anything about it especially after having been told."
Yet McMaster and (most) other politicians have been whoring themselves to corporate and special interest lobbyists since time immemorial. Not only do the "owners" of the house know this, everyone knows this, and there's actual public demand for this to stop.
When will McMaster do something about that?
I see that New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo just indicted 7 people for running a prostitution ring on Craigslist. http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/05/20/craigslist.prostitution/index.html
The last New York State Attorney General to indict people on prostitution charges was Elliot Spitzer.
Just saying.
Going after Craig'sList is a way for politicians and police to appear to be doing something so that people don't notice that they are not doing their jobs. If I was an officer of the law and I wanted to stop prostitution, I'd start contacting every advertiser in the erotic services section and arrange a meeting. Go to the meeting, arrest them.
more cowbell
"in which he likened the site 'to a hotel or motel owner that knows prostitution is going on on their premises and fails to do anything about it especially after having been told."
Yes, a hotel with 100,000,000 rooms. Brilliant analogy.
This is a perfect opportunity for law enforcement to USE CRAIGSLIST TO BUST THESE PEOPLE. Don't shut it down -- use it to your advantage! These 'criminals' will just go elsewhere and shutting down Craigslist is as effective as shutting down Pacific Blvd. after 9PM... In other words: ineffectual
Fact: Everything I say is fiction.
With the sheer volume of ads on craigslist, how can anybody expect them to moderate everything on there.
This isn't moderation. CL has a specific section dedicated to "erotic services", an illegal activity in the United States and much of the world. That's a)recognition of an illegal activity and b)catering one's services to it.
For those of you who think we should regulate prostitution, go read the Wikipedia article about Amsterdam and prostitution. It's a cesspool of human trafficking from 2nd/3rd world countries- tantamount to slavery.
Please help metamoderate.
What gets me on this is that there's obvious prostitution ads in my local newspaper. And there's even publications that consist of nothing but "escort services" that are sold in vending machines across the country just like newspapers.
And here I thought Craigslist was just a website! I'll have to find out where my local Craigslist flea market is, and what its hours are.
With all the battles that need to be fought to make our world a better place, battling against Craigslist seems pretty far down on the list of priorities. I know it'd be a nice, high-profile feather in a prosecutor's cap and all but, seriously, it would be nice if tax payer's dollars were spent on worthy causes first before people try to pad their resume.
South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster says Craigslist deserves to be prosecuted because the site is like "...a hotel or motel owner that knows prostitution is going on on their premises and fails to do anything about it, especially after having been told."
Perhaps Mr. McMaster himself should be prosecuted. Prostitutes openly flaunt their wares on the streets of every major city in his state, yet McMaster has failed to limit their activities in any meaningful way. If he put half the time and effort into cleaning up South Carolina's sin-soaked streets as he has attempting to prosecute a glorified Want Ads site, perhaps that situation could be improved.
Of course, that might involve busting a few familiar faces (cough Spitzer cough).
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
"Craigslist's lawsuit cites an interview McMaster gave to Fox News on Monday, in which he likened the site 'to a hotel or motel owner that knows prostitution is going on on their premises and fails to do anything about it especially after having been told."
Or like the local vice cop/Drug Task Force detective/cointelpro operative for the local gentry who lets the whores ply their trade at the motel in exchange for setting up, for politically and/or economically convenient drug busts, the clueless johns, or errant dealers who've crossed one of the local distributors (say, the one whose wife who has a nice sinecure at city hall), in exchange for leniency in their cases, if they'll narc on others, or sometimes for other considerations which shall remain unspecified here?
Nah, such things don't happen in S.C. or neighboring states, not with such stalwart defenders of justice like Hank in charge.
Whores are incredibly useful people to know, sometimes. Make you want to just tear your hair out, others, like when trying to get one anywhere a witness stand, but I digress. Thank goodness for tape recorders, though.
the title as:
"Craigslist Shielded from Prostitution in SC"?
How exactly is it even relevant if they are similar to hotel that knows that prostitution goes in it? Can a hotel be expected to refuse services to clients who are known prostitutes? Can it be illegal for a hotel to act otherwise? Doesn't it boil down to refusing service to a person because of previous criminal acts? Can the law really require a private business to refuse service to past criminals because they are likely (but not guaranteed) to use the business' services to repeat the criminal activity? When did we all become employees of the police? The last I checked their job is stopping crime -- not arresting anyone else who didn't stop crime.
Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.