Kinder, Gentler C&Ds Please
I’m getting some well-deserved flak for a ham-handed cease-and-desist email I sent to a blogger recently. The dialogue had remained cordial until he revealed his business model - running deceptive textads such as the ones below, which got on my nerves:
He pulled the ads before sharing his story (and my emails) with the press, but not before we’d taken some screenshots. When it comes to following up with Ebay, Livedeal, TableForSix, I should probably leave the C&Ds to the professionals.
Fwiw, we have no interest in shutting down blogs about craigslist, critical or otherwise, and have never tried to do so. But in the strange world of trademarks and copyright, it’s poor practice to allow a confusingly similar domain or business name to go unchallenged. Given all the inquiries we’d gotten from reporters thinking this blogger was associated with craigslist, taken together with the deceptive textads and disrespect for our trademark and terms of use, we felt we had to act.
But there was no need for me to act like a jerk, provoked or not.
April 21st, 2008 at 1:51 pm
I have recently become aware of employment activity on CL. I have not been a regular user of your website but have heard some good comments. I have posted several jobs and look forward to good replies.
The reason for my comment here is to inquire about using some of the ideas, thoughts, and commentary made by people in your job forum. I have participated a little bit there and can see that there is ample material to include in our upcoming blog. I have read your Terms of Use and would not use this information without some clear indication of permission from CL.
Please let me know if you have any questions or require additional information.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Bill Wigginton