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Craigslist Suing Padmapper

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Re: Craigslist Suing Padmapper

#141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Craigslist doesn't needs to be removed from the search index. They just need to prevent caching of posts, which is what 3Taps was abusing. Noarchive in robots.txt ought to take care of that.

To your knowledge, is it against the law to not follow a site's robots.txt? I'm not aware of one, but I am curious.

Ambiguous. See http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4286857.

Re: Craigslist Suing Padmapper

#142
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People insist on using it not because it has a good user experience, but because of content. It has a terrible user experience. Don't confuse the two things. For instance, many payroll companies have truly awful sites, yet people use them since they have no other choice. As a specific example, searching for an apartment should not mean reading every single listing in order to discern where the property is, what featu…

I'd be interested to see interaction studies in the non-tech community about Craigslist, because I haven't seen a person in non-tech find difficulty in posting on Craigslist. Also, don't confuse my opinions about Craigslist's design/UX with an opinion on the case. I've used Padmapper extensively. While I believe that Craigslist has a right to do what they please with their content, I don't see what Padmapper was doin…

Posting is not the UI problem. Browsing posts is the problem.

Re: Craigslist Suing Padmapper

#143

"(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 But on the other hand, "users and developers are exasperated with Craigslist’s insistence on preserving an outdated interface and design."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 don't like Craigslist because of lock in. Sellers must sell there because they are the biggest market, buyers must buy there because they are the biggest market. Everyone is locked in.

Lock-in is super common(and often unintentional or unavoidable), but it goes against the ideal of equal opportunity and competitive markets that rewards companies for a continuous commitment to quality and innovation.

I feel that craigslist has done nothing wrong except for standing in the doorway when other people who want to innovate and improve things are trying to get through (like PadMapper).

Re: Craigslist Suing Padmapper

#144

"(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…

For that analogy to hold, PadMapper would have to be pulling data from a large number of sources. The value that Google News provides is that it aggregates a very large number of sources. PadMapper does not.

Re: Craigslist Suing Padmapper

#146

The tone in this article is unbelievable. > The case raises questions over whether Craigslist is stifling innovation or simply protecting its data There is no question. Craigslist isn't stopping Padmapper from being built, its stopping Padmapper from using Craigslist data . The continuous attempts to reframe Craigslist's actions as an attempt to stifle innovation seem almost surreal. I just can't understand how a com…

It's not Craigslist data, it's the users'. They just have a license. /pedant

Great. Have the users provided a license to PadMapper? Where is this license agreement? How is it made?

Re: Craigslist Suing Padmapper

#147
Padmapper ought to do a better job of leveraging this publicity. Apartment season is in full swing in college towns across the country and they need to push really hard to get the word out about Padlister: in particular, the fact that it will cross-post to Craigslist automatically (so you don't lose any viewers). This doesn't matter for realtors - they already have systems to autospam Craiglist. But it does matter to self-listers. They could get good traction targeting roommate listers and seekers as a way to build organic listings and eyeballs. Create a viral campaign. I would share it, and I know plenty of other people who would because Padmapper has made such a difference.

Re: Craigslist Suing Padmapper

#148
post #111

Here are a couple of legal questions (not taking sides, just honest questions): Does the data belong to Craigslist or to those posting on Craigslist? If so, is this in their TOS? I don't remember ever clicking a checkbox that says "we own your listing" whenever I have sold stuff on Craigslist or posted jobs/gigs. Maybe real estate is different. Why would I want to give Craigslist ownership of my listing? If I were po…

Last time this was discussed, people posted excerpts from Craigslist's terms, in which the user grants Craigslist the right to (i) Use their post, (ii) defend against others copying it. So, I haven't verified it, but the idea seems to be the user owns their post, and could post it elsewhere if they wanted - but Craigslist has the right to stop other sites copying posts direct from Craigslist.

There was a recent case where the judge ruled that a company that didn't own a copyright, but was assigned a license in order to sue infringers on the owners behalf, didn't in fact have standing to sue.

Re: Craigslist Suing Padmapper

#149
post #24

Previous discussion: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4218714 Eric, everybody saw this coming.

I also learned Eric is a smarmy liar who dresses up what's good for him (and his pocketbook) in ludicrous claims that he's doing it for me, and the good of the people! And because he doesn't want you to waste your time, he needs to run this service that exists to make him money. His post was transparent self serving horseshit.

Re: Craigslist Suing Padmapper

#150

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."

This kind of market segmentation through restrictive content licenses is something I'd expect from Hollywood, not Craigslist. It's extremely distasteful and they should feel bad. There's simply no good reason to allow mobile apps but prohibit web apps. Would Craigslist offer a license to a Firefox OS app? How about a Chrome OS app?
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