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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

#91

Post by abarringer »

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?

It's the 9th most popular site in the US.

http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/craigslist.org

Re: Craigslist now asks for exclusive license when posting

#92

Post by duked »

Honestly I have no stake in this, but I'm happy CL is doing that change. 3TAP and Padmapper and just trying to build a "buisness" sucking up posts from CL and tried to find doggy way around it. CL don't want their post used somehwere else, no fancy UI it's their right and it's now becoming their clear LEGAL right. I have zero sympathy for padmapper I actually think their buisness practices are disgusting (CL offered them a licence they just dind't want to pay).

Re: Craigslist now asks for exclusive license when posting

#94

Post by biafra »

loceng wrote: post #62
icebraining wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

And then those sites will tell CL to sue the users who entered it into their site.

Re: Craigslist now asks for exclusive license when posting

#95

Post by jessriedel »

briandear wrote: post #76
melvinmt wrote: post #11

Nice, you take the time to craft your listing on craigslist and now you've lost the right to repost your listing ANYWHERE else. I think we can safely assume that craigslist has a monopoly in (free) online classifieds and this reeks of very anti-competitive behavior. Wonder what the DOJ thinks of this.

It's not anti-competitive any more than a book publisher not allowing you to serialize your novel in some other company's publication. No one is forcing anyone to use Craigslist. You are free not to post and free to not agree to those terms. Why should a publisher (which is what CL is) grant non exclusive rights? It's a business. If you don't like the terms, you aren't forced to sign the contract. You can always post…

You didn't address the monopoly argument at all. There is behavior that is fine under proper market conditions, but is considered under anti-trust laws to be anti-competitive when one has a monopoly (or near monopoly).

Re: Craigslist now asks for exclusive license when posting

#96

Post by prawn »

briandear wrote: post #83
prawn wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If they were honestly all about helping people solve their problems, would they really care if it was them providing the solution, someone else building upon their data, or someone else cutting them out of the action? If they were honestly all about helping people, surely Craigslist would let the market decide what is most helpful to them.

They are letting the market decide.. They just aren't letting people use their content. Craig is a bit of a nut, but it is a business. People are free to use other sites an post ads on other sites. CL isn't stopping them. Even the smallest indie record label would sue if another record company released an album with that label's songs. They may be in it 'for the music' but they aren't going to cut off their own foot…

It wasn't really their content. And now, though they are claiming exclusivity, it's not really in the interest of their beloved users to claim it as theirs.

And no, people don't appear to be legally free to use other sites as well as Craigslist with the same content they've created.

Re: Craigslist now asks for exclusive license when posting

#97

Post by jasondenizac »

floppydisk wrote: post #79
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…

They're changing it to have legal grounds to fend off sites like Padmapper. If they have the exclusive license and another site copies the add and gussies up the display, they have legal grounds to go after the infringing site now. Prior to the explicit issuance of an exclusive license, lawyers for alternative services could make a compelling argument that Craigslist did not assert any license to the content and ther…

Craigslist is not asserting copyright, rather it is asserting that it is the exclusive licensee of the poster's copyright and wants to go after e.g. Padmapper on behalf of the poster.

Re: Craigslist now asks for exclusive license when posting

#98

Post by scotty79 »

sageikosa wrote: post #73
scotty79 wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think any company would sue their users. PR in at least remotely sane companies trumps legal.

I agree on that. Likely they may consider banning you from posting for violating their terms of service. I was just trying to refute that if users cross-posted, they, and not the site to which they posted would be in violation of the agreement.

Banning probably would be another PR no-no, as it might bring their recent "legal" stunt to public attention. One thing is to write something in the fine print at the bottom of the form on your website to help your lawyers get out of the place that they cornered themselves into. Another is persecuting your users for not obeying something so obviously stupid that most people would consider it a typo.

Re: Craigslist now asks for exclusive license when posting

#99

Post by floppydisk »

Dystopian wrote: post #89
floppydisk wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're changing it to have legal grounds to fend off sites like Padmapper. If they have the exclusive license and another site copies the add and gussies up the display, they have legal grounds to go after the infringing site now. Prior to the explicit issuance of an exclusive license, lawyers for alternative services could make a compelling argument that Craigslist did not assert any license to the content and ther…

It should also mean though that cross-posting to other sites like Kijiji (very common) could result in having take-down notices sent for your ad (- since it's an exclusive license you're granting them). [IANAL]

You're right. That's where the exclusive vs. non-exclusive copyright license comes into play. I also wonder what this will do to the rentals market. For instance, local realty company lists all their properties on their website and posts them on Craigslist to increase traction. Craigslist now sends the realty company a takedown notice, for the realtor's website listing, since they copied the listing onto CL. Depending on the level of enforcement CL pursues, this could have the effect of cooling professional usage of CL--especially by organizations that have to run things by legal first.

Re: Craigslist now asks for exclusive license when posting

#100

Post by spindritf »

crazygringo wrote: post #81

I'm always fascinated when companies make that one decision which seems to lead to their downfall -- and everyone seems to be able to see it, except the company itself. I think this is a great thing -- if Craigslist can get enough bad press from this, then maybe a movement for "free and copyable" classifieds listings can take place, and there can be competition in the space again.

Microsoft has been making decisions like that for decades now, they're still here.
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