The Craigslist Case and Other Examples of Copyright Abuse

[Commentary] A federal district court in California refused to toss craigslist's claims that it owns its users' postings.

More and more, we're seeing fine print in terms of use ("TOU") agreements and end user license agreements ("EULAs") that try to make copyright claims. Why? Because copyright law is so overpowered that sneaking a smidge of copyright into what should be an ordinary affair can give a business a huge amount of leverage to bully others into doing what it wants. Practically speaking, this means that craigslist can sue anyone who reposts its users' listings—even if the users themselves want them reposted. If I'm trying to sell (or give away) an ancient laserjet printer (it can connect with either serial or parallel cables), I'd want it posted on as many different sites as possible. To the extent that there's anything creative in what I'm writing, I should decide what happens to my post, right? But no.

craigslist isn't so much concerned with the value of the creativity in the post itself; it's interested in maintaining its position as the biggest online hub for classified ads. Building copyright restrictions into its fine print, in this case, is just the easiest way to bring some legal guns to bear on restrictions of what other people have written.