In mixed ruling, 3Taps is the big winner in ongoing copyright fight with Craigslist
A federal court judge has ruled that a website does not own a copyright on user-generated posts to the site unless it has specifically required the posters to grant it exclusive rights. The ruling could have major impact on efforts to scrape listings from one classified advertising site and post it to another. U.S. District Court Judge Charles R. Breyer, in San Francisco, ruled yesterday that...
Read MoreSupreme Court rules on used-good sale: Critical news for classified-ad publishers
By Peter M. Zollman EBay, Craigslist and just about every U.S. classified publisher should be breathing a sigh of relief about the Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld the right of owners to sell their stuff, even if they imported it. The 6-3 ruling this week allows people to offer products they own for sale, regardless of copyright laws. It overturned two lower-court rulings that Supap...
Read MoreAutoTrader Group kills IPO
AutoTrader Group on Friday cancelled an initial public offering, for the second time in its history, citing “market conditions.” Its first IPO was withdrawn in 2000, a year in which dot-com upheaval precipitated the withdrawal of 40 percent of initial public offerings. The recent IPO was intended in part to recapitalize the company after the payment of a $400 million dividend last year to...
Read MoreQVC completes Oodle acquisition
QVC, the U.S. cable shopping channel, has completed its acquisition of Oodle. The deal was apparently closed before the end of 2012 as scheduled, but the company didn’t formally announce it until we inquired. QVC spokesman Paul Capelli today told us simply, by email, “Yes, we have successfully completed the acquisition.” Apparently, Oodle immediately peeled off its international site in the...
Read MoreGrinda pulls the plug as co-CEO at OLX
It won’t quite be Craigslist without Craig Newmark, but close. Fabrice Grinda, one of the guys who founded OLX and served as its co-CEO, is moving on. In a 4,200-word post on his blog — Fabrice has never been criticized for his reticence or brevity — Grinda said the time has come to move on. He talks through the history of OLX and its previous iterations, his run at Craigslist...
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