I've written several diaries already about the saga of Craigslist-prostitution-porn vs. the Attorney General of South Carolina. You can read the last one here
See, before their recent changes, Craigslist was basically an unabashed internet brothel. You could find a trick with one click of the mouse, and all that. Now they have some sort of standards where naked bodies can't be displayed. Apparently, softcore pornography is more of a criminal offense than prostitution or something. Moreover, you have to pay a fee and you have to hide your prostitution better.
Also, they renamed the category from "Erotic services" to "Adult services." So pretty much a complete change.
Of course, that wasn't enough for Attorney General Henry McMaster, and he threatened to continue and sue Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster for "aiding and abetting prostitution."
Craigslist filed suit in federal court against the AG.
From The State, SC's leading newspaper:
"Mr. McMaster’s repeated threats of criminal prosecution should we refuse to shut down Craigslist for South Carolina have left us little choice but to seek declaratory relief before the court,"
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An attorney representing the company, Philip Leider of San Francisco, said Wednesday in a written statement to The State the suit was brought "as a last resort in response to threats by Attorney General McMaster that violated the U.S. Constitution and federal law."
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Craigslist in court papers contends that under the federal 1996 Communications Decency Act, the company cannot be held liable for content posted by users of the site, even if the ads are illegal.
That last part is interesting, because it seems to contradict the often-made point here that Markos (or rather, "Kos Media, LLC") can be held liable for copyright violations.
My guess is that copyright violations fall under a different category of the law, i.e. whichever part of the law let the (OMG EVIL F THE) RIAA and MPAA and such go after Napster and various other file-sharing companies (see A&M Records, INc. v. Napster, Inc.)
However, it seems that when the issue at hand is merely solicitation for illegal activities or display of highly arousing (and possibly illegal) images, the law comes down on the side of Craigslist.
The saga between South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster continues. A federal judge has put a block on prosecution of Craigslist executives for ads that lead to prostitution.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Weston Houck ordered McMaster to " refrain from initiating or pursuing any prosecution against Craigslist or its officers" McMaster threatened to prosecute Craigslist executives over content posted on the site that advertised prostitution and included pornography. Craigslist changed their erotic services to adult services and began to charge a fee.
I'd like to close this diary with the following: I bet the SEIU sure would like to have prostitution legalized. I mean, they already represent service employees, so it's only a short step to representing employees who service (just take a Russian reversal and you're there).
One assumes it would be SEIU Local 69.