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Craigslist now asks for exclusive license when posting

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Re: Craigslist now asks for exclusive license when posting

#61

Post by stellar678 »

ralfn wrote: post #52
ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #39

Wow. Under the disguise of a pseudo-charity, Craigslist just revealed it's true intentions. They foolishly just opened themselves up to a lot of hate and possibly gave people a huge reason to try out competitors. This may be the beginning of the end of Craigslist's Empire. This is usually how it starts, users being held hostage, increased control, and decreased satisfaction with the service with no way out due to net…

Thats a little dramatic. CL isnt popular here in Holland, but i was under the impression, it was ebay meets dating, using a 200 byte php forum file, that looked so old, you would just assume encodimg errors. Why are you getting your panties in a twist? What import role does this site play in your life or that of others?

Craigslist is gigantic in big US metro areas.

It's pretty much the standard way to find a place to live, to find an employee or a job, to buy and sell used cars, etc... etc...

It's also known for having 3 times higher revenue-per-employee than Google even though the vast majority of activity on the site is free.

Re: Craigslist now asks for exclusive license when posting

#62

Post by loceng »

icebraining wrote: post #57
jc123 wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hard to see the day when craigslist tries to sue posters for this "violation"; so effectively posters can ignore this legalese as it's targeted to give craiglist ammunition against other sites.

They may not sue posters, but what if they sue the sites to where the poster voluntarily submitted copies of his post?

Clearly that's what they want to do or at least have the ability to threaten suit with this in their TOS.

Re: Craigslist now asks for exclusive license when posting

#63

Post by ralfn »

icebraining wrote: post #56
ralfn wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To be fair, consumer organisations here in Holland once took 25 EULA's to a judge. Less than 1% of what was stated would ever be held up in a dutch court. Things like the concept that a company can just define their liabilty themselves. Or how they have the right to share personal data with 3rd parties. The laws can not overwritten with contracts, esspecially ones without signatures. In essence, and this was quite fu…

This is not an EULA.

You are right. Although it comes down to the same thing. They are all just synonyms for contracts. ( a liscene is just a type of contract )

And this could very well be a good example of the 1% that would actually be uphold.

If they had your signature, that is. Getting exclusive content liscence without explicit permission? They cant even prove it was you that submitted the content in the first place.

Imagine a store having a sign that they own your bag, whenever you enter. Come on, this will not hold up in court.

Compare certain opensoure companies that require contributions to assign copyright to them. They all demand a real piece of paper, with a real signature.

Re: Craigslist now asks for exclusive license when posting

#64

Post by ralfn »

dbecker wrote: post #58
ralfn wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thats a little dramatic. CL isnt popular here in Holland, but i was under the impression, it was ebay meets dating, using a 200 byte php forum file, that looked so old, you would just assume encodimg errors. Why are you getting your panties in a twist? What import role does this site play in your life or that of others?

the "ebay meets dating" impression is not correct. Craigslist is closer to an "Online Classified Ads" which is popular for posting jobs, apartment rentals, cars, sporting equipment, musical instruments, and pretty much everything else you might post in a classified ad. I'm told it is one of the 100 most popular sites on the internet (and one of the 50 most popular in the US). One of the reasons people feel strongly a…

Alright. That sounds very anti competitive. And if they truly have a monopoly likely illegal as well.

I really wish, we had proper laws to deal with all these vendor lockin tricks. Its as if the free market, without proper regulation just ends up promoting innovation in loopholes that give an unfair advantage.

Everyone wants to be a cable company these days, and be selling access to customers. Instead of contributing something of actual value themselves, they just want to tax others when they do. Hijack the customer, and be the middle man.

They all essentially implement the same bussiness model as the mob.

Re: Craigslist now asks for exclusive license when posting

#68

Post by don_draper »

ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #39

Wow. Under the disguise of a pseudo-charity, Craigslist just revealed it's true intentions. They foolishly just opened themselves up to a lot of hate and possibly gave people a huge reason to try out competitors. This may be the beginning of the end of Craigslist's Empire. This is usually how it starts, users being held hostage, increased control, and decreased satisfaction with the service with no way out due to net…

What are some good alternatives?

Re: Craigslist now asks for exclusive license when posting

#70

Post by zopa »

ralfn wrote: post #64
dbecker wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the "ebay meets dating" impression is not correct. Craigslist is closer to an "Online Classified Ads" which is popular for posting jobs, apartment rentals, cars, sporting equipment, musical instruments, and pretty much everything else you might post in a classified ad. I'm told it is one of the 100 most popular sites on the internet (and one of the 50 most popular in the US). One of the reasons people feel strongly a…

Alright. That sounds very anti competitive. And if they truly have a monopoly likely illegal as well. I really wish, we had proper laws to deal with all these vendor lockin tricks. Its as if the free market, without proper regulation just ends up promoting innovation in loopholes that give an unfair advantage. Everyone wants to be a cable company these days, and be selling access to customers. Instead of contributing…

It's not really anti-competitive, and it's very unlikely to be illegal. It's just a fairly classic natural monopoly.

There's only likely to be one major classified ad company, because advertisers want to use the site with the most users, and users want to use the site with the most classified ads. That's hard for a competitor to break into, not because of anticompetitive behavior by Craigslist, but because of the nature of the market.

As for the law, the general rule of thumb, in the US at least, is that it's not illegal to have a monopoly, but it is illegal to use your monopoly to dominate a second market.

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