Craigslist has used a variety of technological and legal methods to prevent unauthorized parties from violating its terms of use by scraping, linking to, or accessing user postings for their own commercial purposes. For example, in April, craigslist obtained a $60.5 million judgment against a real estate listings site that had allegedly received scraped craigslist data from another entity. And craigslist recently reached a $31 million settlement and stipulated judgment with Instamotor, an online and app-based used car listing service, over claims that Instamotor scraped craigslist content to create listings on its own service and sent unsolicited emails to craigslist users for promotional purposes. (Craigslist, Inc. v. Instamotor, Inc., No. 17-02449 (Stipulated Judgment and Permanent Injunction Aug. 3, 2017)).
Craigslist Garners $60 Million Judgment against Radpad in Scraping Dispute
For years, craigslist has aggressively used technological and legal methods to prevent unauthorized parties from violating its terms of use by scraping, linking to or accessing user postings for their own commercial purposes. In its latest judicial victory, on April 13, 2017, craigslist obtained a $60.5 million judgment against Radpad on various claims relating to harvesting content from craigslist’s site and sending unsolicited commercial emails to craigslist users. (Craigslist, Inc. v. RadPad, Inc., No. 16-01856 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 13, 2017)).
Craigslist Files Another Suit against Data Scraper
For years, craigslist has aggressively used technological and legal methods to prevent unauthorized parties from scraping, linking to or accessing user postings for their own commercial purposes. In a prior post, we briefly discussed craigslist’s action against a certain aggregator that was scraping content from the craigslist site (despite having…
No Third Party Beneficiary Status under Craigslist Terms of Use
A primary purpose of a Web site’s "Terms of Use" ("ToU") is to reserve to Web site owners the ability to regulate undesirable conduct. But should that ability be extended to third parties? Can users of a site assert that they are third-party beneficiaries of that Web site’s ToU, and invoke the provisions of the ToU against another user of that site? In Jackson v. American Plaza Corp., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 35847 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 28, 2009), the district court said that at least in the case of Craigslist, a user could not claim third-party beneficiary status under the Craigslist ToU.