Craigslist Blog

Craigslist had filed a countersuit against their competitor, eBay. Craigslist stated that they filed a case for copyright infringement against eBay for using ads on Google for Kijiji, which is a rival site of Craigslist but the ads are appearing on Craigslist and not from Kijiji.

eBay have members on the board of craigslist and these members are said to be pressuring craigslist to be bought by its competitor, eBay. These members are also gathering information for the launch of Kijiji which is a competitor of craigslist.

The reason for their filing of a countersuit was for eBay to return all their shares from craigslist.

eBay had bought 28.4% of shares in craigslist’s stock in 2004 but the founder and CEO of craigslist diluted it to less than 10% which is believed by eBay to be unethical, at least this is what eBay has allegedly said. Craigslist on the other hand denied these accusations and filed a countersuit against eBay for unethical practice.

With all these drama between eBay and Craigslist, it is still left for the judge to affirm which of these 2 cyber giants are telling the truth and which one has an ill motive against the other.

The month of February has been a busy one for the Craigslist website. While we won’t focus on the actual company, we will focus on the “unique” activities of one of its users, a woman named Ann Marie Linscott.

Linscott, who is 48 years of age, posted multiple advertisements (a total of two) on the Craigslist website in November of 2007. She posted that she needed a “Freelancer” and that the price was $5,000 (United States Dollars). Many of the people who replied to the post (at least three confirmed responses) believed that the advertisement was for a freelance writing opportunity. Instead, they found out that the woman was trying to find an assassin to kill her romantic rival. Linscott had been involved with the husband of this potential victim, Carol, and she apparently wanted Carol taken out of the equation. All of this information comes from the FBI agent who was assigned to this particular case.

Ann Marie Linscott was arrested for her actions on January 24 in Grand Rapids, a city in Michigan. Due to her illegal actions, Linscott is currently facing murder-for-hire charges. She faces up to 30 years in prison along with a $750,000 fine for her Craigslist advertisement.

Craigslist recently made headlines by making a $1.6 million dollar donation to the University of California Berkeley. UC Berkeley will use the donation, along with another $1.5 million dollar donation by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, to create a new media faculty position at the university.

Jim Buckmaster, the current CEO of Craigslist, stated that he was excited to support a private institution such as UC Berkeley.

With major technology funded groups, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, distributing their money for world wide causes, others like Buckmaster and Hewlett are using their funds to support the universities that educated the people that now make millions off of the technology world. With Craigslist being based on the small company model, it is impressive to see them donate such a sum of money to a worthy cause.

It is important to note that the donation is coming straight from Craigslist and not from the Craigslist Foundation, which is set up for donation purposes. The $1.6 million dollars apparently came straight out of the pocket of CEO Jim Buckmaster and the other employees at Craigslist.

It is nice to see the tech community giving back to the institutions that made possible for them to make their name in the industry.

It would seem that the legal drama in Chicago involving Craigslist.org is far from over. The victory that the company has achieved in the November 2006 decision may be challenged again on appeal. However, Craigslist is confident that the judgment in the lower court will be upheld and the appeal will be dismissed eventually.

The controversy stems from a complaint filed by the Chicago Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights under Law in February 2006 against Craigslist.org. The primary cause of action of the case was for alleged violation of the latter of the Fair Housing Act. The said Act prohibits the publication of any discriminatory statements based on an individual’s race, national origin, sex, religion or any other criteria indicating bias or prejudice when selling or renting out a dwelling place.

In November 2006, Judge Amy St. Eve of the US District Court ruled in favor of Craigslist.org relying on a different law – the Communications Decency Act. The court stated that Craigslist’s service falls within the description provided under the Communications Decency Act as an “interactive computer service”. Therefore, Craigslist is not a publisher as defined under the Fair Housing Act that exercises complete control with respect to editorial content. Nonetheless, the Lawyer’s Committee filed a brief to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals for a reversal of the contested ruling.

There is no question that Craigslist has a formidable presence in the United States as far as classified advertising services are concerned. It belongs to the top 10 among the millions of English-based websites in the world. This is evidenced by the numerous criticisms it has received from the various rival newspapers in competing for the same advertising revenue pie. Despite its success, Craigslist has experienced failures in some of its endeavors, one of which is penetrating Britain. This should change anytime now as nowadays, Craigslist is concentrating its efforts to entering once more the British market.

Craiglist’s Chief Executive Officer, Jim Buckmaster, has announced that the company plans to follow up on its lukewarm presence in Britain. The website has its London counterpart but it has failed to raise the same excitement as the original one. Cultural differences as well as language usage have been identified to be factors on why the British website did not register a phenomenal growth. To illustrate, Craigslist has a listing for apartments, which to Britons are “flats” hence this connection are not made while perusing through the site. The way the London site was designed may also be another consideration.

Craigslist is said to have learned from its mistakes and is set to re introduce itself to Britain.