Update: 6/2/09: Minneapolis Related | Minnpost story: City Pages: Adult ads double after Craigslist changes
I would be standing and applauding right now if it wasn’t for me typing. The CEO of Craigslist just gave the South Carolina Attorney General a big black eye in their as of recent exchange in the battle over the formerly “erotic services” now “adult services” section of craigslist. The AG has been threatening to charge Jim with criminal behavior because he apparently is promoting and spreading prostitution.
This is what I’ve gotten out of all this bickering back and forth. The SC-AG is a jerk (thanks TechCrunch for the awesome image edit). Craigslist is going out of its way to make the attorney general’s of all the states happy. And only this d-bag is left shouting. He’s obviously trying to give himself some publicity, unfortunately he’s not going to succeed very well. As it shows in this Electronic Fronteir Foundation (EEF) post. Craigslist has the upper hand and possibly and a lot of previous judgements to back it up.
My favorite quote from the backlash from Jim is this (the links are from the craigslist blog and are definitely Not Safe For Work (NSFW):
Many prominent companies, including AT&T, Microsoft, and Village Voice Media, not to mention major newspapers and other upstanding South Carolina businesses feature more “adult services†ads than does craigslist, some of a very graphic nature. For a small sampling, look (careful NSFW) here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here.
Rounds 1,2, and 3 go to the SC AG. Jerk. (I must have been thinking something else… my bad)
Rounds 1,2, and 3 go to Craigslist.
–dez
Here is the original craigslist blog post
