Craigslist Inc. v. 3Taps Inc.

Craigslist is a website where users post and browse classified ads for, among other things, housing. PadMapper is a website specialized for browsing housing ads. PadMapper collected data from Craigslist and offered a map of the ads. Craigslist also blocked PadMapper's and 3Taps's IP addresses from accessing its site, causing a significant drop in traffic to PadMapper. 3Taps continued to collect data from Craigslist by accessing the site through proxies, which allowed it to conceal its IP address and bypass Craigslist's block. On 9 July 2012, PadMapper restored its site by getting its data from 3Taps instead of directly from Craigslist. On July 16, 2012 Craigslist changed their terms of service to claim exclusive ownership, and exclusive right to enforce copyright of all postings made by users. Craigslist later rescinded these changes under pressure from the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others on August 8, 2012. On 20 July 2012, Craigslist sued both PadMapper and 3Taps. Craigslist's complaint specified several reasons that 3Taps's continued use of Craigslist was unlawful: it was in violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act; it was a breach of Craigslist's terms of service contract; it infringed on Craigslist's copyright of the listings; it was also contributory copyright infringement, since 3Taps shared the listings with PadMapper; and it infringed on and diluted Craigslist's trademark. 3Taps opposed the claim that it violated the CFAA. On July 12, 2013 the Electronic Frontier Foundation filed an amicus brief in support of PadMapper and 3Taps. == Opinion of the court ==

On April 29, 2013 the court denied 3Taps' motion to dismiss Craigslists's CFAA claim. Most importantly the court held that Craigslist could continue its damages claim on posts made between July 16, 2012 and August 8, 2012. This was the period during which Craigslist had modified its terms of service to claim exclusive copyright on all postings. Third, 3Taps warned of negative consequences of a decision that criminalizes a vague access restriction. It criticized Craigslist's enforcement as unclear about what exactly what it was prohibiting. 3Taps stated that an ordinary user would be more likely to misunderstand Cragslist's IP blocking than, for example, a system that required a password to gain access. The court found this not of much concern, highlighting that the personalized cease-and-desist letter and subsequent lawsuit provided adequate notice and information. This, the court found, would be sufficient in differentiating the case from more benign incidents where a user accidentally stumbles upon a protected system. The court admitted that it could not comment on whether it would consider Craigslist's IP blocking to be effective, but considered the fact that 3Taps went out of its way to bypass it as enough evidence that 3Taps acted without authorization. 3Taps also said that this decision would be a judgment on Internet culture. It promoted the idea of publicly accessible websites as a great social benefit, which a decision for permission controls would harm. It claimed that the CFAA was meant to protect private information against malicious hackers, and that it was not meant to limit the social benefit created by public data. It also predicted that a broad interpretation of the CFAA would limit competition and harm innovation, ultimately harming the openness of the Internet. The court refused to make a judgement on these matters; it considered those matters to be better handled through legislation. The court likened its decision to allowing a store to open itself to the public but also to ban a disruptive person if it needed to. == Reactions ==

The court, in many instances, pointed to Craigslist's cease-and-desist letter as evidence that 3Taps knew that its authorization had been revoked. Law professor Eric Goldman questioned this, stating that "[cease-and-desist letters] are wish lists by the senders. They describe what the sender wants to happen." As such they may easily overstate what a defendant must lawfully do. Goldman found it troubling that the court had treated the cease and desist letter as a legally-binding document that revoked 3Taps's authorization to access Craigslist. == References ==