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Earlier quoted context omitted.
> in an attempt to unseat Craigslist. Unseat Craigslist as the undisputed champion of what, exactly? Cartographical apartment hunting?
They are the champion of free listings, and built a huge user base around their dead simple platform.
No, it really doesn't. This isn't going to be a long, exciting case challenging the underpinnings of copyright law and server terms of services. Padmapper isn't that company.
It's a shame for the guy behind Padmapper, but hopefully there'll be a lesson learnt about knowing which fights are worth picking versus knowing when to move on.
Somehow Google managed to overcome Yahoo and Altavista without scraping their data. And look at something like GumTree in the UK, which has always been miles ahead of Craigslist - no first mover advantage taken up there. Plus, GumTree's design has been equally woeful over the years.
Who didn't see this coming? I almost feel bad for Padmapper, but not really, because they should have known better.
If anyone is the party we should feel bad for in this case it's 3Taps. They seemed to be flying under the radar until Padmapper started using them.
Why is craigslist going after people who bring them traffic? Is it because they don't bring in much money themselves so they have to sell licenses? I've never really thought about craigslists business model. I assume it's almost entirely ad based / premium placement of your ad on their site based.
A key part of building a business around stealing IP is getting acquired by a big firm that can fight legal battles. YouTube executed well on this plan; I'm curious how Padmapper planned for this obvious development.
Padmapper doesn't steal IP.
The point is that simply defending against the lawsuit could kill Padmapper. Lots of time, money, and energy go into lawsuits. Conveniently, those are three things startups don't typically have in excess. The outcome doesn't matter for Padmapper if Padmapper dies during the defense.
A key part of building a business around stealing IP is getting acquired by a big firm that can fight legal battles. YouTube executed well on this plan; I'm curious how Padmapper planned for this obvious development.
Padmapper doesn't steal IP.
STEALING
transitive verb
1a : to take or appropriate without right or leave
and with intent to keep or make use of wrongfully
If you're going to downvote me, that's fine, but if you do, please show how copyright infringement does not fit within the definition of stealing. I'd like to settle this semantic debate once and for all.
Why is craigslist going after people who bring them traffic? Is it because they don't bring in much money themselves so they have to sell licenses? I've never really thought about craigslists business model. I assume it's almost entirely ad based / premium placement of your ad on their site based.
From a Wired article, circa 2009 (so this may be out of date): "Craigslist is not only gigantic in scale and totally resistant to business cooperation, it is also mostly free. The only things that cost money to post on the site are job ads in some cities ($25 to $75), apartment listings by brokers in New York ($10), and—in a special case born of recent legal trouble—advertisements in categories commonly used by prost…
Though to be honest that makes no sense, because that's exactly what they're getting from the third party site, and they're paying for that...
Who didn't see this coming? I almost feel bad for Padmapper, but not really, because they should have known better.
If anyone is the party we should feel bad for in this case it's 3Taps. They seemed to be flying under the radar until Padmapper started using them.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Craigslist is one of the poorest user experiences around and succeeds only because people insist on using it. So, to paraphrase, it only succeeds because something about it attracts customers. As opposed to other sites, which succeed by fairy dust and rainbows. If padmapper has a great user experience, that's wonderful -- They should be able to get customers to post their listings on it, and generate data without r…
It only succeeds because it has a historical legacy that's proving difficult to displace. This is the same thing driving eBay. It's a difficult nut to crack. Kajiji seems to be gaining some traction, but it's trading one set of UX nightmares for another.