

Campaign against Craigslist reaches absurd heights - grellas
http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_16015269

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oiuygtfrtghyju
Isn't it time to go after the real enemy?

Corning make almost all the glass that transmits all this digital pornography
around the world.

Isn't it time somebody acted to stop these monsters profiting from the evil
trade in dense wavelength division multiplexing?

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tptacek
Is Blumenthal's crusade against craigslist a shameless pandering PR stunt from
a (popular) politician running for higher office? Yes.

Is the underlying concern nonsensical? No.

Did craigslist take a real step to ameliorate the concern of AG's around the
country over trafficking ads? Yes.

Did craigslist eliminate trafficking ads (and ads for prostitution in general)
from the site? No.

Is the Internet changing the game for the illicit sex industry? Yes. Is
craigslist assuming a central role in that transformation? Yes. Is craiglist
actively pursuing that role? Probably not.

Is it fair that they're bearing the brunt of public outrage over the
Internet's role in making the illicit sex market more efficient? I don't know.
Maybe.

Articles taking the piss out of CT Gov candidate Blumenthal for making a
campaign issue out of craigslist: peachy keen.

Articles suggesting that public outrage against craiglist is intrinsically
wrong, or articles that don't say that directly but form arguments clearly
premised on that notion: not so great.

~~~
webSexBuyer
_Is craigslist assuming a central role in that transformation? Yes_

No, there are some sites that devoted solely to promoting prostitution:

<http://www.theeroticreview.com/>

<http://www.bigdoggie.net/>

Seeing state AG's going after Craigslist really shows how disinterested they
are in addressing the problem they perceive and that they are merely playing
for the camera.

~~~
tptacek
The problem with your argument is that I agree with it, and yet my argument
still stands.

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bherms
Does this remind anyone else of Atlas Shrugged? The government forces someone
to bend to their will, then tries to also force that person/business to also
speak out on the oppressors behalf. Sickening IMO, but sadly, it's just
another tactic used to fool people into thinking they're doing something
worthwhile here. I'd like to hear Clist speak out and say that they're
shutting Adult down because they were forced to, but that the issue still
remains and, if anything, having it publicly available on Craigslist probably
made the "industry" safer.

~~~
wmeredith
Yes, there's an Atlas Shrugged correlation there. However, I'm pretty sure
that a governing body forcing the oppressed to make erroneous public
statements on their behalf has been a non-fiction occurrence for far longer
than Atlas Shrugged has been in print.

~~~
sabat
In this context, Rand was merely acting as a reporter.

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ww520
The tech industry seriously needs to organize to have a bigger political
clout.

~~~
tptacek
And you think craiglist prostitution ads are the rallying point for that?

~~~
ww520
While I agree that the current Craiglist's predicament is unpleasant, what is
it about that "First they came for ..." thing?

~~~
tptacek
You mean, "First they came for the sex traffickers, and I said nothing,
because I agreed that the sex trade is bad and that making it more expensive
and riskier was a worthy use of my tax dollars"?

Next you'll tell me that they're coming for the car stereo fences.

~~~
ww520
First they came for Craiglist's adult section where some member submitted
content were objectionable. Next they come for the gun forum where some member
submitted content are objectionable. Next they come for Reddit where some
member submitted pictures are objectionable. Next they come for Hacker News
because someone posts detail in hacking into DOD.

Craiglist has broken no law. The politicians are going on a moral crusade for
their benefit. They pick on the geeks because well back in school they were
the easy targets.

~~~
tptacek
These aren't objectionable pictures. These aren't objectionable message board
posts. These are advertisements for overtly criminal activities. You have to
make a real argument.

And speaking as one of the geekier people on HN, please spare me the geek
exceptionalism.

~~~
jacquesm
> These are advertisements for overtly criminal activities.

Robbing a bank is an 'overtly criminal activity', so is murder. Prostitution
is a different matter altogether and even if I can't fathom why someone would
go to visit a prostitute I completely support the prostitutes in their
position and the customers in theirs as well.

As long as everybody agrees to it and is 'of age' I really can't find any
reason whatsoever that would cause me to think this is criminal.

To quote George Carlin: "Selling is legal, fucking is legal. Why shouldn't
selling fucking be legal?".

~~~
tptacek
It's a strange definition of "criminal" that ignores the law.

~~~
kareemm
are hosting the ads actually criminal? (serious question)

~~~
tptacek
Probably not, but it's not so certainly legal that it's crazy to challenge
craigslist. It is illegal to advertise prostitution in many (most?) states,
owing to pandering laws. To the extend that craigslist is a common carrier
under the CDA, they for the most part aren't liable for what people who use
their service post. The extent to which the CDA applies and does or doesn't
shield them is a (somewhat) open question, as I understand it.

It is certainly fair to point out that the law leans significantly towards
craigslist's side of the argument.

------
tedunangst
In other news, the Mercury News website was obviously hacked. It's a well
known impossibility for "old media" to publish anything supportive of
craigslist.

