Craigslist agrees to delete erotic services listings
 

BOSTON -- Online classified site Craigslist will replace its “erotic services” ads with a new adult category “to bar flagrant prostitution and porn,” the Connecticut attorney general’s office said on Wednesday.

Craigslist’s sex-service listings have faced intense scrutiny following the April 14 murder of 25-year-old masseuse Julissa Brisman, who advertised on Craigslist in Boston. Philip Markoff, a 23-year-old Boston University medical student, was charged with killing Brisman and with attacks on two other women he met through Craigslist.

Officials from Craigslist were not immediately available to comment.

The “erotic services” section will end within seven days and be replaced with a new section called “adult services” where every advertisement will be manually reviewed by Craigslist staff, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said in a statement.

In April, Blumenthal had asked Craigslist officials to eliminate photographs in the “erotic services” and similar sections of the site, hire staff to screen ads that blatantly violate Craigslist rules and offer incentives for people who flag and report prostitution advertisements.

Craigslist informed him of the changes on Tuesday night, Blumenthal said.

Craigslist, a 14-year-old online bazaar that generates more than 20 billion page views per month in 50 countries with a staff of just 28 people, is partially owned by online auctioneer eBay, which bought 25 percent in 2004.

Along with its free listings for just about anything -- from apartments to furniture, jobs and cars -- San Francisco-based Craigslist.org provides one of the largest and most controversial sex-service listings.

“We will be monitoring closely to make sure that this measure is more than a name change from erotic to adult and that the manual blocking is tough and effective to scrub prostitution and pornography,” said Blumenthal, who has led a task force with other attorneys general on Craigslist.

Tabloids dubbed Markoff “the Craigslist killer.”

The murder followed the killing of George Weber, a New York reporter knifed to death after responding to a personal ad he placed on Craigslist in March, and the early-April sentencing of Michael Anderson, a Minnesota man convicted of killing a woman who responded to a babysitting ad.

The Craigslist measures could set a precedent for similar sites, Blumenthal said.

“Closing the erotic services section -- a blatant Internet brothel -- should lead to other blocking and screening measures, and set a model for other sites, if Craigslist keeps its word,” Mr. Blumenthal said.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Cra...440/story.html

Prostitution is legal in BC just as long as you aren't doing it in a public area ie street walkers I thought?

Prostitution is definitely not legal in BC.

is that a fact? ^

I think you need to the check the laws again thur buddy.

Yes.
http://web.viu.ca/crim/Student/Sturdy.htm

Maybe now the Sun and Province newspaper will get rid of there ads too.

the act of purchasing and selling is legal, but there is no legal place in which it can occur.

Prostitution is technically legal because of the legal loophole.

When you are paying a prostitute for sex, you're not paying her for the service of sex. You're paying for the hours she spends with you, anything else that happens in that hour is inconsequential. This is a legal fact.

I believe prostitution is legal but soliciation is not.

Ohh noes!

I fail, I'm a crim gradudate too :(

Too quick to jump the gun there, I was thinking one answer but stupidly typed another. Reviewed some of my old notes and tada ...:thumbsup:

The act of prostitution is legal in Canada but the act of solicitation is where it gets tricky. Solicitation cannot be done in public places (sort of mentioned above by poster) or in public view is illegal. So basically you could meet up with someone at your place of choice (provided its not public, IE hotel/motel room, house etc) and privately solicitate. This also applies to motels, vehicles parked away in private away from the public view or public areas and even massage parlours, so long as the discussion is held within the massage room. Although using any of the options mentioned could fall under as a "bawdy house" (a place kept, occupied or used by at least one person for the purposes of prostitution or indecent acts).

Advertising in public print is legal because it is protected by the right to free speech in our Charter of Rights as ruled by the Supreme Court of Canada. As far as the ads in Vancouver Sun, Province etc go ...it is not illegal because it is not considered public due to the fact those papers, magazines etc are purchased and it is your choice whether you buy them or not (quite the loophole eh?).

:werd:

Yah now you got it. We learned about that in our Law 12 class haha.