The big red flag here is the author splitting hairs about the copied content being "factual data." This tells me he is insincerely attempting to navigate a perc

The big red flag here is the author splitting hairs about the copied content being "factual data." This tells me he is insincerely attempting to navigate a perceived loophole. Anyone who has visited "Best of Craigslist" (http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/all/ http://www.craigslist.org/about/best/all/) will see that there is a ton of creativity there, not just factual data. This goes for classifieds posts as well. And yes it is the user's content but it is posted on CL subject to the TOS. Put yourself in CL's shoes: they have to defend not only against "fledgling startups" but also against deep pocketed companies like Yahoo that sometimes buy fledgling startups. They cannot leave their service vulnerable to the whims of any parasitical company that would come along and attempt to exploit their users, their community, and their users' content. Another piece that Krrb is pretending to ignore is that the users only take the initiative to post in the first place because of the good will and critical mass that Craigslist has, with long investment and significant sacrifice, been able to create. Leveraging third party services is a time honored model for startups, but a startup founder should not expect a free pass if they try to do so in an abusive manner that induces users to violate the TOS.