Craigslist now asks for exclusive license when posting

Post by smspence » Wed, Aug 01, 2012, 10:11 PM UTC

jonny_eh wrote: post #159

Zimahl wrote: post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And if I wrote a piece of software that helped you post the same thing simultaneously on Craigslist and EBay, I bet they'd sue me. That's not what this is about. CL doesn't care where you post it, or how many times you post it. CL just doesn't want others scraping their website and posting it for you. This is direct action on CL against Padmapper.

How will CL know that an identical ad on CL and another site wasn't scraped, but just double posted by the author? Do you really think CL is just going to politely ask?

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Aug 01, 2012, 11:41 PM UTC

rhizome wrote: post #200

nathan_long wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> The new terms of service just prevents other people from copying the content of the craigslist ad. Um... >> the exclusive right to enforce copyrights against anyone copying, republishing, distributing or preparing derivative works without its consent Where does it say anything about "other people?" I mean, I doubt Craigslist would sue an actual user for posting on EBay, but they might send EBay a takedown notice f…

The "work" is the content as it appears on Craigslist. CL doesn't have exclusive right to the selling of the object, just the content of the ads people post to CL.

Post by tempestn » Thu, Aug 02, 2012, 4:16 AM UTC

achompas wrote: post #197

wpietri wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never said otherwise. But as the Padmapper thing shows, the point of the legalese is to hinder people who are serving its users.

CL has every right to do that, especially since scraping CL listings creates a very high amount of load on their servers. Higher load --> slower response time --> deteriorated user experience.

Post by brownie » Thu, Aug 02, 2012, 1:38 PM UTC

don_draper wrote: post #68

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?

Post by dhimes » Fri, Aug 03, 2012, 10:59 AM UTC

briandear wrote: post #88

dhimes wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bad metaphor. If I make a commercial, am I allowed to run it on more than one television network? Can the TV network say, "you can only run this on our networks?" I don't know the answer to this question, but I would be annoyed if the network were allowed to lock me in like this. Other networks should be annoyed too. Should all companies be forced to give up their competitive advantage to make it easier for competiti…

There's a big difference between a tv ad and a classified ad. The content of CL IS ads. The content of a TV station, ie the competitive differentiator, is based on the quality of its shows, not the ads. If you made a TV show, a network wouldn't allow you to broadcast it on other networks. Still, CL isn't a public good. Don't like them, turn the channel.