I see two problems with your argument: 1) You are comparing physical media to a web service 2) You are confusing content with access to content Since you men

I see two problems with your argument: 1) You are comparing physical media to a web service 2) You are confusing content with access to content Since you mentioned Phonebook, let's take yellowpages.com This site has much of the same information that a phonebook does. I would argue that it would be illegal for company B to scrape yellowpages.com for this information in order to make money without express permission from yellowpages.com. However, if Company B found another way to access the same information (ex: scanning physical phonebooks or asking people to sign up to their site) then I'd say they're within the law. Craigslist is 100% within their rights to control who accesses their service and how. If CL users want to register for Padmapper and post the same ads on both services then that's their prerogative.