The Verge - Craigslist's fight to keep control of its data

Craigslist's terms of use ruled 'impermissible' as copyright complaints dismissed

2013-05-01T08:48:02Z

A California court has dismissed Craigslist’s copyright claims against 3taps, PadMapper, and Lovely, finding that the company's terms of use didn’t actually prohibit the defendants from using its data. The three sites all operate businesses based on Craigslist's postings, and the company's efforts to shut challengers out of its data have led to a protracted battle in court. This week, Judge Charles Breyer ruled that although Craigslist's posts were "original" enough to warrant copyright protection, its terms of use didn't give it an exclusive license on users' posts, meaning that it doesn't have the legal standing to sue for infringement.

Craigslist losing revenue from housing ads as competition heats up

2012-11-05T16:30:06Z

Rumors of Craigslist’s death have been greatly exaggerated, but the dot-com era site may be losing its dominance in the American real estate market. Craigslist’s revenue from real estate listings is down a hefty 23.8 percent from last year, falling from $13 million to $9.9 million in 2012, according to a report today from research firm AIM Group, which tracks the online classifieds industry.

Such a dramatic loss in real estate listings would help explain why Craigslist pulled out all the stops this summer to quash the popular housing search tool Padmapper, which aggregates listings from Craigslist and other sites and displays them on a map with extra search tools. Craigslist sued the one-man operation and its data provider 3Taps,...

Craigslist ad indexer 3Taps files counterclaim in copyright dispute, alleges 'dirty tricks'

2012-09-25T02:19:25Z

A new chapter is unfolding in the legal drama between classified ad service Craigslist, and third parties that repurpose its ads. Two months ago Craigslist asserted copyright claims against apartment hunting site PadMapper and its data provider 3Taps for using its user-submitted ads without permission, and now 3Taps is swinging back with a counterclaim accusing Craigslist of using anticompetitive tactics to maintain a monopoly on online classified ad markets.

The counterclaim, filed on September 24th, denies that Craigslist exclusively owns its users’ posts (which the company itself has recently conceded), and claims that by preventing others from searching its publicly available ads in more efficient ways, Craigslist is behaving like...

Craigslist doesn't want to own your posts, but it's still prohibiting third-party services

2012-08-10T03:33:05Z

New changes to Craigslist’s Terms of Use end its claim to a restrictive exclusive license over its users' posts. The news was first reported by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which noted that the recently-added restriction gave Craigslist effective ownership of the copyrights to its user-generated content, leaving community members unable to republish their ads on multiple platforms, for instance. The EFF notes that because of the company’s about-face, it’s probably less likely that other sites will pursue the same kinds of onerous licensing.

The change likely won’t affect the suit Craigslist filed last month against apartment search provider PadMapper and its data provider 3Taps, though. The updated Terms appear to...

Craigslist takes extreme stance on copyright policy, declares exclusive ownership of ads

2012-08-01T19:55:02Z

Craigslist has made a dramatic alteration to its terms and conditions that establishes the company as "exclusive licensee" and copyright owner of all classified ads posted on its site. The alarming shift in policy was first spotted by Jon Berger, who noticed the new language at the bottom of Craigslist's post creation form. With the sweeping changes, Craigslist theoretically gains the ability to sue anyone (read: both individuals and businesses) it feels is "copying, republishing, distributing or preparing derivative works" without permission — clearly addressing the ongoing scuffle with Padmapper.

Clicking "Continue" confirms that craigslist is the exclusive licensee of this content

Essentially, the new terms allow Craigslist to...

Craigslist sues PadMapper and 3Taps over copyright infringement

2012-07-24T19:49:05Z

Craigslist is suing apartment-searching web app PadMapper and its data provider, 3Taps, over allegations of copyright infringement, breach of contract, and several other charges. The suit comes after the company's cease-and-desist letters were dismissed by PadMapper founder Eric DeMenthon earlier this month.

3Taps provides an API for web developers — like those at PadMapper — to easily access Craigslist's listing data. While PadMapper does use this data to locate apartments, when a user clicks a listing the corresponding Craigslist page is opened in a frame. In a blog post from earlier this month, DeMenthon argues that because PadMapper "doesn't touch [Craigslist's] servers," it isn't subject to the site's Terms of Use (TOU).

C...

Padmapper skirts around Craigslist cease and desist, brings back apartment listings with third-party API

2012-07-09T19:46:01Z

Padmapper got some unwanted attention from Craigslist last month in the form of a cease and desist letter, which led the apartment listings aggregator to remove all content sourced from the classifieds site. It was a devastating blow for the tool, and founder Eric DeMenthon implored users to contact Craigslist executives in support of Padmapper's cause. Thus far the company hasn't budged on the matter, but DeMenthon has just announced plans to bring back Craigslist apartment results anyway.

Citing the major inconvenience that the situation is causing his users, DeMenthon says he plans to again integrate Craigslist listings into Padmapper with the help of a company called 3taps. They've developed an API that provides data from Craigslist...

Craigslist cracks down on apartment listing aggregator Padmapper

2012-06-23T14:03:09Z

Apartment hunting may be about to become much harder, as today, Craigslist issued a cease and desist letter to Padmapper, a popular apartment rental aggregator, forcing it to remove all listings derived from its site. The action signals an aggressive new approach toward sites that display housing listings, and could put similar services in danger. By redisplaying listings on a Google Maps interface, allowing users to sort and view listings based on their location and other filters, Craiglist's lawyers claim that Padmapper has violated the site's terms of use. Padmapper's creator, Eric DeMenthon, sees things differently.

"Padmapper just acts as a search engine and sends all traffic back to the sites it searches," DeMenthon told...