South Carolina's McMaster softens rhetoric, but still considers suing Craigslist

The office of South Carolina Atty. Gen. Henry McMaster said this afternoon that it was still considering legal action against Craigslist over classified listings it sees as prostitution. McMaster is being sued by Craigslist, which is asking for a restraining order against any possible prosecution over the ads.

The renewal of the threat of prosecution, which McMaster has made several times, appeared to be toned down in comparison with earlier, more aggressive statements.

In response to a question about whether legal action against Craigslist was still on the table, a spokesman for McMaster responded, "Yes. This office and law enforcement officials in the state will now need to monitor the website to ensure that the illegal content that has been removed does not appear again."

McMaster also posted a statement on his website (PDF) noting that Craigslist "is now taking responsibility for the content of their future advertisements. If they keep their word, this is a victory for law enforcement and for the people of South Carolina."

Until today, McMaster had been threatening imminent criminal prosecution of Craigslist over alleged prostitution ads, even after the site publicly announced its plan -- now in place -- to shutter its "erotic services" section in favor of a more strictly controlled "adult services" section. But in his office's statement to the Times, McMaster seemed to downgrade the nature of his threat to the kind of "wait and see" approach that was adopted by several other attorneys general last week after Craigslist laid out its changes.

Craigslist Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster announced the lawsuit against McMaster on the San Francisco company's blog today, saying that the attorney general's "repeated threats of criminal prosecution should we refuse to shut down craigslist for South Carolina have left us little choice but to seek declaratory relief before the court."

-- David Sarno

Craigslist to remove erotic services section, monitor adult services posts [Updated]

Updated at 10:17 a.m.: This post has been updated to add comments from Craigslist Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster, Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan and a Craigslist spokeswoman.

After weeks of pressure from state and local law enforcement officials, Craigslist is announcing today that it will remove its controversial erotic services section permanently. In its place, the classifieds site has created an "adult services" category for which every new listing will be manually approved. Currently most ads on the site are posted without review.

As of today, the erotic services section will no longer accept new ads and will be removed completely in seven days. Posts to the adult services section will cost $10, twice as much as those for erotic services listings. Craigslist had agreed to donate proceeds from the erotic services listings to charity but says that rule will not necessarily apply to the new ads.

Craigslist Chief Executive officer Jim Buckmaster said in an interview that the site had come to the decision after carefully weighing input from law enforcement, users, legitimate online businesses and free speech advocates. 

"It was a balancing act where we’re trying to respond to feedback to constituencies that we felt were important.  When you’re talking about attorneys general who are the top legal authority in their respective states," he said, "That was feedback that we felt was important to take into account."

"We’re optimistic that we’ve struck the right balance," he added.

Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan, one of the most active critics of Craigslist's erotic services section, called the new oversight regime "a fundamental and very significant change to how Craigslist works."

Prostitution will not disappear, Madigan said, but with the tougher new measures, "You’re not going to have the volume of it, you’re not going to have the ease of it."

Madigan added that her office and others would continue to monitor the site. 

"We’ll use law enforcement techniques to determine whether those are legitimate adult services as opposed to just a continuation of prostitution, with a different name."

When asked for a precise definition of legal "adult services," Craigslist spokeswoman Susan Best wrote in an e-mail, "The typical definition (i.e. go look in your office yellow pages under escort and massage) sensual massage, escorts etc."

Though both Madigan and Buckmaster agreed that the deal had been struck on a cooperative note, the San Francisco company argues that the case against it had been exaggerated. Craigslist makes the point in a blog post it plans to publish today and which was provided to The Times.

"Unsurprisingly, but completely contrary to some of the sensationalistic journalism we've seen these past few weeks, the record is clear that use of craigslist classifieds is associated with far lower rates of violent
crime than print classifieds," the post says. 

"However, with respect to this new paid category for advertising by legal businesses, we will experiment with some of the methods traditionally employed in paid print classifieds."

Law enforcement officials have often complained about the ease with which prostitutes and their clients can arrange encounters on Craigslist. But officials have stepped up their criticism since the slaying of masseuse Julissa Brisman, whose body was found April 14 in a Boston hotel. Police say the killer found her through a Craigslist ad.

Boston University medical student Philip Markoff, 23, is accused of bludgeoning Brisman with a gun and then shooting her. Rhode Island authorities filed additional charges last week, saying he robbed a stripper at a Warwick, R.I., Holiday Inn two days later. He was arrested the following week as he drove to a local casino with his fiancee.

Markoff has pleaded not guilty.

-- David Sarno

Illinois attorney general demands shutdown of Craigslist's erotic services section

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan sent a letter to Craigslist today regarding what she called "the rampant prostitution and exploitation of women" on the site's erotic services section. Madigan became the latest state law enforcement chief to request that the section be taken down after the killing of a woman who had posted a massage advertisement there two weeks ago. Craigslist founder Craig Newmark has defended that area of the site.

Madigan alleges that Craigslist has not fully met the terms of a November 2008 agreement it signed with the attorneys general of 43 states [PDF here], in which the classifieds website agreed, among other things, to the development of what the letter calls "an electronic screening system to prevent posting of certain advertisements," language and images that violate Craigslist's terms of use.

The system, Madigan's letter says, has not been effective.

"While there has been an approximately 40% decrease in daily postings, more than 400 ads are posted daily in Chicago alone," the letter stated, "and the vast majority of ads blatantly violate even the most basic terms of use."

Craigslist did not immediately return a request for comment.

In January, the letter says, Madigan's office coordinated an effort in which Chicago advocates and law enforcement personnel used the flagging mechanism that Craigslist offers to complain about "hundreds of ads" in the erotic services section of the local version of the website. "In response to the flags, no ad was removed or subject to 'speedy removal' as represented by craigslist," the letter says.

Madigan demanded that the erotic services section be removed from the site immediately, and requested a variety of information about the functionality of Craigslist's flagging system, and the degree to which it has been used to enforce the site's terms of service.

Finally, Madigan asks for an affidavit from Craigslist's public accounting firm of the fees raised from erotic services postings. The November agreement stipulated that 100% of those fees would be donated to charity.

Asked for an example of an ad that it believed violated the terms of service, Madigan's office sent the text of a current posting in which a woman offers "Discreet outcalls to your private residence," before specifying an hourly rate. The title and text of the advertisement contain explicit sexual language, and it's accompanied by a graphic image of a woman in a sexual position. 

 

-- David Sarno

Cash is nice but barter might be better in the tough economy

No credit? No cash? No problem.

That is, if you want to give online bartering a try.

That's what Valerie Whitlock did. The 37-year-old actress and writer from Studio City holds down sporadic film and television gigs to cover her rent, utilities, car payments and insurance. For everything else — headshots and haircuts, clothing and cut reels — she barters her handcrafted jewelry on the Web.

"Bartering is something wonderful in good times and in tough times. We are all thinking of ways to make our dollars stretch farther," said Mary Hunt, founder of money management website Debt-Proof Living.

More people are turning to Craigslist, SwapThing and other websites during the financial crisis to trade for what they need or what they want. These cashless transactions pick up in every recession, economists say. But the Internet has given the practice unprecedented reach.

"In cyberspace, there is no distance between two points," technology forecaster Paul Saffo said. "What the Internet has given us is convenience and scale."

Read the full L.A. Times story on bartering here.

Photo: Valerie Whitlock, an actress and writer from Studio City, barters her jewelry online. Credit: Jay Clendenin / Los Angeles Times

Web of love: looking for romance online

In the flower-power era of the 1960s, John Lennon emphatically sang, "All you need is love." But he didn't have to worry about the Internet, and having to text message sweet nothings to Yoko. Some techies are finding the courting process difficult, and they're turning to more unusual, high-tech means to seek potential mates. (No, we're not talking about racy Craigslist ads.)

Take, for example, the anonymous 25-year-old man who's, well, uninitiated in the ways of love. His website, Help a Virgin, has gotten significant attention over the last couple of days. The deal, assuming it's not all a hoax: His girlfriend (that is, a friend who is a girl -- a relationship that has been, so far, totally platonic) agreed to do him a favor by alleviating his carnal deficiency as long as the website receives 5 million hits by New Year's Eve. If he doesn't reach his goal, he'll have to do "anything she wants for a whole month."

Thanks to some attention from Reddit, the social news website, Help a Virgin has seen a major surge in Web traffic. The site has been up since at least the summer (the last time it was updated was July), but after it hit Reddit's front page on Sunday, the traffic counter has more than doubled -- to 80,000 and rising. At this rate, his scheme won't succeed (he wouldn't even get half the target number) so he'll definitely need some additional attention. (He didn't respond to my e-mail requests for an interview, but, then again, I'm not a woman.)

He wouldn't be the first to chalk up a failed attempt at Internet-assisted intimacy. Cargo8, a user of the popular social news site Digg, made his plea for a prom date earlier this year. The post includes a photo of him holding poster boards with his proposal written on them. Diggers supported him, giving more than 14,000 votes to the post, but his love interest didn't reciprocate. Ouch.

Internet proposals don't always end in heartbreak, however. Michael Weiss-Malik, a Google software engineer, popped the question using the Google Maps' panoramic Street View feature. In the street-level photos, he can be seen standing in front of the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif., holding a sign that reads "Marry Me Leslie." She said yes. But, to be fair, he did ask her beforehand, the old-fashioned way -- in person, during a quiet night at home, engagement ring and all.

"The assurance this guy got pre-Digg is not as cool for the risk factor though," Cargo8 wrote on Weiss-Malik's Digg post.

At least he got the girl, buddy.

-- Mark Milian

Screenshot of Help a Virgin

Craigslist cracks down on prostitution, illegal activities*

* Updated at 11:56 a.m. with comments from the California Attorney General's office.

In a pact with more than 40 states and territories, Craigslist is taking steps to prevent people from posting classified ads that can facilitate prostitution, human trafficking, child exploitation and other illegal activities.

The effort was spearheaded by Connecticut Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal and announced today.

San Francisco-based Craigslist has been under increasing pressure to crack down on prostitutes using its site to troll for clients. Craigslist called the steps, which were taken in partnership with state law enforcement agencies and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, "sweeping." The company also said the measures were devised in face-to-face meetings between Craigslist Chief Executive Jim Buckmaster, Blumenthal and representatives of the NCMEC.

Buckmaster said criminal activity is a very small portion of the tens of millions of legitimate ads posted every month on Craigslist. "No amount of criminal activity is acceptable, and as Craigslist has grown, we have become aware of instances where our free services were being misused to facilitate illegal activities," he said.

Craigslist prohibits prostitution and other illegal activities. It has filed 14 lawsuits and taken legal action against numerous companies and individuals violating its terms of service, it said. It also uses a flagging system to remove inappropriate posts. Craigslist also plans to add other protective measures such as charging a small fee with a valid credit card and requiring a working phone number for posts in its "erotic services" section. Paid ads that violate site guidelines will be removed without refund and the proceeds will be donated to charity, the company said.

The changes will take place across all Craigslist sites in the U.S., which together attract about 40 million visitors a month.

California was not among the states joining the agreement. "Californians are protected either way," said Dana Simas, a spokeswoman for state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown. "We didn't see an inherent reason we needed to sign on."

-- Jessica Guynn

Photo: Connecticut Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal. Credit: Bob Child / Associated Press