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Craigslist Suing Padmapper

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Re: Craigslist Suing Padmapper

#91

Post by eli »

wickedchicken wrote: post #80
jaysonelliot wrote: post #66

"(Craigslist) said it offered a license that would have allowed PadMapper to use its data on mobile applications but that the competitor did not accept the terms." But on the other hand, "users and developers are exasperated with Craigslist’s insistence on preserving an outdated interface and design." I don't know the legal merits of either party's position, but from an ethical perspective, I tend to side with Craigs…

I see this from the opposite viewpoint, that PadMapper is operating as a search engine designed to help you find the right Craigslist posts for your apartment hunt. Claiming that PadMapper's success is from Craigslist failing to 'provide a good UI' is like suggesting that Google News' success is because newspaper companies failed to provide good article SEO. Instead, it's a different modality of content discovery, an…

I don't think this has any legal bearing for anyone, but it's worth noting that Google respects publishers who do not wish to be indexed.

Re: Craigslist Suing Padmapper

#92

Post by rabidsnail »

debacle wrote: post #78
rabidsnail wrote: post #72

At least they're not claiming a violation of the CFAA (which I think would actually be a more straightforward argument).

Care you explain? I don't know what the CFAA is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act

The relevant part of the act would be: "Intentionally accessing a computer without authorization to obtain ... information from any protected computer". A "protected computer" is a computer "which is used in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce or communication", which fits Craisglist pretty well.

Violation of the clause I quoted is a criminal offense with potential jail time.

Re: Craigslist Suing Padmapper

#93

Post by ChuckMcM »

This isn't surprising of course, it is their data after all, but it brings up the 'easy problem' / 'hard problem' (E/H-P) conundrum quite nicely.

The conundrum is that it is 'easy' to take an existing, quality data source, and re-skin it for broader market appeal. This is something that Craigslist should be doing but perhaps through poor management are not. It is 'hard' to take a conceptual model of skinning and building a quality data source behind it.

As I said elsewhere, the PadMapper guys might have taken this to Craigslist and said "Look what we can do with your data, lets make happy music together." and then debated the terms. Or they could take their UX to the venture capital world and say "Look at this cool product we could build if we had access to a database with Craig list's quality" and debate cap tables and dilution (assuming they got to that stage of a term sheet).

But they chose the third route, "Lets see how long we can get away with this..." and the timer on that just ran out.

Sadly, this third path makes the first two paths much harder. Craigslist already sees them as the 'enemy' and VCs will see them as a team that makes poor choices. Both views make it harder (but certainly not impossible) to consummate a deal. However, from the blog and from previous postings here it seems they made those choices with their eyes open.

Re: Craigslist Suing Padmapper

#94

Post by [deleted] »

res0nat0r wrote: post #10

Here's a nugget from the article which I didn't hear anything about in the previous Padmapper postings and chat here on HN: "The company said it offered a license that would have allowed PadMapper to use its data on mobile applications but that the competitor did not accept the terms."

[deleted]

Re: Craigslist Suing Padmapper

#95

Post by pchristensen »

pavel_lishin wrote: post #11
res0nat0r wrote: post #10

Here's a nugget from the article which I didn't hear anything about in the previous Padmapper postings and chat here on HN: "The company said it offered a license that would have allowed PadMapper to use its data on mobile applications but that the competitor did not accept the terms."

How many people use PadMapper on a mobile device, vs. the desktop site?

Their iPad app is one of my guilty pleasures. (ditto HotPads and Redfin)

Re: Craigslist Suing Padmapper

#96

Post by Kadrith »

wickedchicken wrote: post #80
jaysonelliot wrote: post #66

"(Craigslist) said it offered a license that would have allowed PadMapper to use its data on mobile applications but that the competitor did not accept the terms." But on the other hand, "users and developers are exasperated with Craigslist’s insistence on preserving an outdated interface and design." I don't know the legal merits of either party's position, but from an ethical perspective, I tend to side with Craigs…

I see this from the opposite viewpoint, that PadMapper is operating as a search engine designed to help you find the right Craigslist posts for your apartment hunt. Claiming that PadMapper's success is from Craigslist failing to 'provide a good UI' is like suggesting that Google News' success is because newspaper companies failed to provide good article SEO. Instead, it's a different modality of content discovery, an…

Does PadMapper respect the robots.txt file?

Re: Craigslist Suing Padmapper

#100

Post by cwp »

chimi wrote: post #37
cwp wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Padmapper doesn't steal IP.

It's pretty clear that Padmapper is making use of the craigslist posts without the rights to do so, which is defined by Merriam-Webster as "stealing". STEALING transitive verb 1a : to take or appropriate without right or leave and with intent to keep or make use of wrongfully http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/stealing If you're going to downvote me, that's fine, but if you do, please show how copyright infrin…

Padmapper doesn't infringe copyrights either.

edit: Ok, I won't be so cryptic. Padmapper doesn't copy the posts on Craigslist, they link to them. That's not a semantic quibble. All search engines do so. If I blogged that I was renting my apartment and linked to the Craigslist post describing it, I would be doing exactly what Padmapper is doing.

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