Last month Philip Markoff, also known as the “Craigslist killer” was charged for using the classifieds website to lure erotic masseurs and then either robbed them or murdered them.  In March 2009, Craigslist said that erotic ads were down 90-95% in 12 months after the Cook County sheriff decided to sue the classifieds website.  And last November Craigslist tried to eradicate the erotic advertisements by actually charging prostitutes to place ads on their website.  Rather than trying to discourage people from posting within the erotic services section, they have gotten rid of it altogether.

Basically, they have just gotten rid of the use of the word “erotic” in the classifieds websites.  Going forward, similar services will be appearing in an adult section which will be closely monitored by Craigslist staff.  Posting in the adult section will cost $10 and $5 for reposting.

“Community moderation as exemplified by our flagging system is arguably the most successful system ever conceived for eliminating inappropriate activity from a massive internet community. Working in tandem with various other protective technologies, it is an inescapable force to be reckoned with for anyone set on abusing free internet communications across a broad array of posting types,” wrote Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster.

Earlier this week, Intel Corporation was fined $1.45 billion by the European Union regarding competitive practices.  The $1.45 billion fine imposed on Intel is a victory for Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD).  AMD is a major competitor of Intel and was responsible for the investigation.  This fine is the largest that has been imposed on a company, even beating out the fine imposed on Microsoft last year.

Intel gave computer manufacturing companies rebates to encourage them to not use AMD’s chips.  Intel has denied those charges and vows to appeal the ruling made against them.  However Intel competitors may take civil cases against them using the Commissions regulatory action as a reference for the lawsuits.

In Korea, Intel was issued a $25.4 million fine for abuse in their dominant position around 2008.  Three years before that, Intel violated the Japan Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) anti-monopoly laws by forcing full exclusivity with five Japanese PC companies.

[via ComputerWorld UK]

BlogHer is a community for women who blog.  Last July BlogHer raised $5 million in funding as part of a Series B round.  Now the company has raised an additional $7 million round of funding as part of their Series C.  This brings the company to a total investment of $15.5 million.

The participants of the new round of funding includes previous investors Venrock Capital and Peacock Equity.  BlogHer gained attention for hosting First Lady Michelle Obama’s blog.  BlogHer has about 2,500 bloggers in their network.  There are about 30 direct employees of the company.  BlogHer was started in 2005 by Lisa Stone, Elisa Camahort Page and Jory Des Jardins.  Stone currently serves as the CEO.

[via AllThingsD]

In the beginning of March, L’Oréal decided to take eBay to court.  Sometimes fake L’Oréal products appear to sell on eBay and this is why the cosmetics company wanted the online auction company to pay for it.

L’Oréal took eBay to court in four countries, but earlier this week they won a victory in France.  Last year, eBay had to pay €38.6million as part of a fine to Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton group for a similar case.  eBay also won a similar case against the Rolex Group in Germany several years ago. A ruling is expected to be made in the U.K. soon.

L’Oréal claimed that 60% of their cosmetics being sold on eBay were counterfeits, but the French courts ruled that eBay is meeting obligations to combat fake products from selling.

“This is a clear legal victory for eBay and an important victory for consumers. We are delighted that eBay’s meaningful efforts to fight counterfeits online have been recognised by the court. Today 99% of all items listed on eBay are genuine products and we continue to work hard to ensure eBay is a safe and trusted place to shop,” stated Richard Ambrose, the head of trust and safety for eBay UK and Ireland.  “We have always believed that co-operation is the best way to fight counterfeits. Ongoing dialogue and collaboration, rather than litigation, is the only way to effectively identify and remove any counterfeit items which do appear on our site.”

Late last month I wrote about how the city council in California is reviewing Steve Jobs’ petition to have 84 year old mansion Jackling House torn down to be replaced by a smaller house.  The 17,250 sq. ft. Spanish Colonial style mansion was named after copper millionaire Daniel Jackling, who passed away in 1956.  The architect was George Washington Smith.

Jobs bought the Jackling House mansion in 1984 when the first Mac was released.  He lived there for 10 years before moving to Palo Alto.  The Woodside town council approved a demolition permit for Jobs to have the mansion taken down in 2004, but it was blocked by an ad-hoc organization called Uphold Our Heritage.  Uphold Our Heritage viewed Jackling House as a national treasure, but Jobs called it “one of the biggest abominations of a house I’ve ever seen.”

The town council of Woodside, California voted a 6 to 1 approval for the teardown.  Mayor Peter Mason, who is also a licensed architect was the one person that voted against the teardown.

[via Fortune]

The beauty about the iPhone camera is that it is a hotbed for amateur photography.  In the case of Seattle man Shane Becker his amateur photography got him in trouble with the police.

Shane took a picture of two men refilling a Bank of America ATM on May 8 in the downtown R.E.I. store.  Shane was in line to buy a Thule hitch mount bike rack.  Since the customer service had a long line Shane had time to notice employees of Loomis refilling the ATM and so he walked over and took a picture of them on his iPhone.

“I did not take the picture to case the joint. I did not take the picture to threaten the safety of the two Loomis fake cops with their bulletproof vests, hip side pistols and very fragile egos. I did not take the picture to make it easier for anyone else to rob this or any other ATM. I just like to see things that I don’t normally get to see. (Just like when I was in Vancouver, BC with Fall Out Boy, I got to see the stage being constructed… and took pictures of it.),” wrote Shane on his blog.

The bald Loomis employee told Shane to come talk to him after he was done with the purchase. After Shane refused, the Loomis employees called the police.  The Loomis employees wanted Shane’s ID so that they could report it to their boss as well.  After some going back and forth, Shane had a conversation with a police officer about 9/11 and photography:

Officer Debra Pelich (#5976):   Remember 9/11? I saw pictures of those buildings. One time when I was in Florida I was wandering around taking pictures. A security team came up and told me it was a high security restricted area. I wasn’t supposed to be taking pictures there. I explained that I didn’t know that, was a police officer, showed them my ID and complied with them. We cleared it up and I left.
Shane Becker:  Since you managed to pull the 9/11 card somehow, does that mean that everyone that took a picture of those buildings—

An officer put handcuffs on Shane after that comment and took him to the Seattle Police Department West Precinct.  While Shane was getting arrested, Mark Sangerman took a picture using his iPhone:

[via IAmShane Part 1,2, Shane's Twitter]

Jammie Thomas is a Native American single mother of two.  She is from Brainerd, Minnesota and became the first person to have a file-sharing copyright infringement lawsuit brought against her by the Recording Industry Association America (RIAA).

Initially Thomas was found guilty of 24 acts of infringement using Kazaa and was ordered to pay $222,000.  However the judge gave her motion for a new trial.

Brian Toder, Thomas’ lawyer told U.S. District Judge Michael Davis of Minnesota that he billed $130,000 of his own money for the first trial.  That money will never be recovered.  Judge Davis has not ruled yet on whether Toder will be released from representation.  The RIAA doesn’t have a problem with Toder’s removal, but objects against having him as a continuance.

The RIAA has sued over 30,000 individuals regarding copyright infringement.  Most of those sharing music have settled out of court for several thousands of dollars.

Double X is a new website made for women and is written primarily by women.  Double X is actually a spin-off from a group blog that was on Slate.com called The XX Factor, named after woman’s pair of X chromosomes.  Double X features content such as news and politics, arts, work, kids and parenting, health and science, etc.

Some of the editors include Meghan O’Rourke, Hanna Rosin, and Emily Bazelon.  “Women’s magazines never get it quite right,” stated O’Rourke. “It seemed like an opportune moment to jump in and lead the conversation.”  Slate editor in chief Jacob Weisberg agreed to allow the XX Factor to spin off since it was already performing very well.  The managing editor of Double X is Jessica Grose, a former editor at Gawker blog Jezebel.

Double X has a 40% male audience which they hope to retain by hiring several men to contribute essays about fatherhood.  Slate also recently launched websites that focus on finance (The Big Money) and news and opinion for African-Americans (The Root).