craigslist blog

Trial starts in Delaware today, with eBay claiming craigslist’s directors acted inappropriately in implementing governance measures designed to protect the long term mission and values of craigslist.

The public version of craigslist’s pre-trial brief (PDF) is available, and Alexandria Sage has written a pre-trial “curtain raiser” for Reuters.

Separately, craigslist has filed suit in California charging eBay with unlawful and unfair competition, misappropriation of proprietary information, business interference, false advertising, phishing attacks, and breaches of fiduciary duty. This suit will proceed after the Delaware trial, but will probably not be presented to the jury until late 2011.

Delaware testimony will encompass eBay’s 2004 purchase of craigslist stock from a former shareholder.  craigslist is a private company that does not publish its financial information, and eBay and craigslist both agreed that the terms of this transaction should not be made public. However, these details will now likely be subject of testimony at trial.

As a condition for its 2004 stock purchase from a former shareholder, eBay insisted on acquiring special rights over Craig’s and Jim’s shares (e.g. rights-of-first-refusal over any sale of their shares), and special rights from craigslist (e.g. veto rights over mergers and acquisitions), for which it collectively paid $16 million. This sum was distributed to craigslist’s shareholders, in part because had it not been distributed, eBay would have had a pro rata claim on any portion retained by the company, effectively paying itself for the rights it purchased.  eBay’s special rights terminated in 2007, when it launched Kijiji in the US.

Also subject to testimony will be eBay’s misconduct, and abuses by eBay of its position as a shareholder of craigslist - evidence of and suspicions regarding which informed the craigslist board when the corporate governance protections in question were researched, deliberated upon, and ultimately adopted.

For additional information, please refer to craigslist’s pre-trial brief.

Yesterday afternoon craigslist engineering noticed a disproportionate amount of server/bandwidth resources being consumed by requests referred via Yahoo Pipes, with the lion’s share of that activity appearing also to be in violation of CL terms of use.  Pipes access has been suspended pending further review.

US District Court Judge John F. Grady has summarily dismissed Sheriff Dart’s suit against craigslist, concluding:

Sheriff Dart may continue to use craigslist’s website to identify and pursue individuals who post allegedly unlawful content. But he cannot sue craigslist for their conduct

Here is the full text of the judge’s ruling

Matt Zimmerman at the EFF has excellent analysis and commentary:

Meritless cases brought by law enforcement officers, amounting to little more than publicity stunts with little to no chance of success, do little to address the officers’ underlying concerns.

Our trial before the Delaware Chancery Court has just been postponed at eBay’s request, but it’s worth noting that the Chancellor has now granted summary judgement dismissing 2 of eBay’s claims.

As to the remaining claims, the evidence at trial will show craigslist and its directors adopted reasonable governance measures to protect craigslist and its mission from, among other things, eBay’s exploitation of its position as stockholder to harm craigslist and obtain unfair commercial advantage.

Here is the public version of craigslist’s trial brief.

The unrelated suit against eBay in California — for unlawful and unfair competition, misappropriation of proprietary information, deceptive passing-off, business interference, false advertising, phishing attacks, free-riding, trademark infringement, trademark dilution, and breaches of fiduciary duty — is unaffected.

This offer got picked up by the Early Show among other outlets:

“Got lots of use out of these guys over the past 50 years but it’s time to move on.  Excellent overall condition.  Still plenty of life left in them.”

Buyer interest is taking off for CL-listed Florida airport:

In addition to 7 hangers and a 2,700-foot grass landing strip, purchaser will gain a mobile home, barn and a zoning permit for the construction of an additional 13 hangers.

From Internet News, “Who’s Really Winning the Search Race“:

Yet, as it turns out, the big players aren’t the ones seeing the most growth in search. Instead, it’s Craigslist that leads in percent growth according to comScore. The online classifieds site posting a 12 percent jump in queries from 583 million to 651 million from April to May.

Here’s the data, with search queries denominated in millions:

Pair of twin-screw car/passenger ferries for sale in Vancouver, BC:

These babies are drawing considerable interest, so get ‘em before they’re gone!

Noteable as this news cycle winds down ( “Craigslist Pwns McMaster,” “Pandering Has Its Price,” “Craigslist 1, McMaster 0,” “McMaster’s Final Humiliation” ) has been the absolute disinterest shown by politicians and journalists in hardcore sex-for-money ads featured in journalistic media, no matter how numerous or graphic they may be.

Here are a few out of tens of thousands of “escort ads” featured on backpage.com adult classifieds owned by Village Voice Media, publisher of a chain of weekly newspapers. (WARNING - EXPLICIT SEXUAL CONTENT):

• I am a nasty freaky girl who loves sucking cock (Chicago)
• An Irish blowjob and a cum showering rainbow (New York)
• Cum lay your hotdog on my bun for memorial day (Dallas)
• Doing men 18 to 65 with trucker parking (Toledo)
• Three holes anything goes $90 - GREEK included (New Jersey)
• Can u fuck my tight pussy hard ask for alexis - age 18 (Atlanta)
• Thick meaty transexual treat (Philadelphia)
• I luv 2 suk n fuk - age 18 (Phoenix)
• Deep throating full service freak (Orlando)
• I gotta big a$$ fat pu$$y big boobs need I say more (St Louis)
• Enjoy multiple orgasms with “Flavor” (Myrtle Beach, SC)
• Let me put you to bed backdoor available $80 (Columbia, SC)
• Ebony slut will blow u away wet n ready 4 u gfe (Greenville, SC)

UPDATE - Now deleted ads included photos of sex acts, and price quotes for: “GFE, BBBJ, CIM, greek, swallow, DATY, 69, facials, golden showers, anal”

UPDATE - Screenshot of ad cited above (CAUTION, EXPLICIT SEXUALITY)

These examples were “featured” ads for which Village Voice charged extra, such that this content presumably fell well within their guidelines.

It’s worth noting that these ads’ TITLES ALONE contain more explicit content than you will find in all craigslist adult service ads combined.

Could the blessing of politicos on voluminous pornographic sex-for-money ads in journalistic media have anything to do with the need for positive coverage and campaign endorsements from said media?

As for journalists, is it possible that criticizing craigslist is more career-friendly than taking their own employers (or publishing peers) to task?