After the state's attorney general publicly threatened Craigslist over its "adult services" ads, even in the face of recent restrictions on such listings, Buckmaster promptly blasted back with a well-written weblog post suggesting the state should also consider arresting the CEOs of AT&T, Microsoft, and Village Voice Media,

not to mention major newspapers and other upstanding South Carolina businesses feature more "adult services" ads than does craigslist, some of a very graphic nature. For a small sampling, look (careful NSFW) here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here, and here... What's a crime for craigslist is clearly a crime for any company.

Then came the coup de grace: A lawsuit against the AG for restraining Craigslist's free speech — announced in a Craigslist blog post, naturally.

Rather than allow its reputation as a shady haven to fester, Craigslist is finally tackling it head-on. And not by hiding behind some spokesperson (as much as we adore Craigslist's Susan Best), but direct, straight from the CEO's mouth online, and via its lawyers in court.

The pushback came none too soon: New York's attorney general just busted a Queens-based prostitution ring that advertised exclusively on Craigslist.

Craigslist has long taken pride in the fact that its executives get their hands dirty; founder Craig Newmark famously calls himself "chief customer service representative." That's proven to be a lucrative strategy. Who's to say the company's muscular PR moves aren't an example worth following, as well?

UPDATE: South Carolina's AG has released a statement bizarrely taking credit for changes Craigslist made a week ago:

Columbia, S.C. – "The defensive legal action craigslist has taken against the solicitors and my office is good news. It shows that craigslist is taking the matter seriously for the first time.

More importantly, overnight they have removed the erotic services section from their website, as we asked them to do. And they are now taking responsibility for the content of their future advertisements. If they keep their word, this is a victory for law enforcement and for the people of South Carolina.

We'll chalk it up as a face-saving retreat.

Earlier today, several attorney generals announced that Craigslist would be ending their "erotic services" category. But in the first statement on the change from the company, which was forwarded to us by Craigslist spokesperson Susan MacTavish Best, the new "adult services" forum Craigslist is planning to replace it with will be an entirely for-profit venture. In the old "erotic services" category, Craigslist had charged sex workers a fee for phone verification, but donated all of the proceeds, after costs, to charity.

Here's Craigslist's explanation of the move (emphasis added):

Note: Our announced intention to contribute 100% of net revenues for the "erotic services" category to charity has been fulfilled, and will continue to be fulfilled, notwithstanding criticism questioning our good faith in this regard. However, in light of today's changes, and to avoid any future misunderstanding, we are making no representation regarding how revenue from the "adult services" category will be used. Our commitment to philanthropy remains however, and craigslist will continue to develop its charitable initiatives.

So, our elected officials, in their effort to find a scapegoat for crimes against sex workers like the murder of Julissa Brisman, have taken a site that never made a dime from the hookups it helped set up, and turned it into a full-time, for-profit sex money machine. You know, like the alt-weekly newspapers littering town. Progress!

Here's the full statement from Craigslist:

STRIKING A NEW BALANCE

As of today for all US craigslist sites, postings to the "erotic services" category will no longer be accepted, and in 7 days the category will be removed.

Also effective today for all US sites, a new category entitled "adult services" will be opened for postings by legal adult service providers. Each posting to this new category will be manually reviewed before appearing on the site, to ensure compliance with craigslist posting guidelines and terms of use. New postings will cost $10, but once approved, will be eligible for reposting at $5.

Unsurprisingly, but completely contrary to some of the sensationalistic journalism we've seen these past few weeks, the record is clear that use of craigslist classifieds is associated with far lower rates of violent crime than print classifieds, let alone rates of violent crime pertaining to American society as a whole.

The relative safety of craigslist compared to print classifieds is likely due to some combination of:

* Measures such as blocking, screening, and telephone verification  
* Community moderation via flagging system  
* Electronic trail ensures violent criminals are quickly caught  
* Personal safety tips prominently posted  
* Unusually high level of cooperation with law enforcement

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.

However, with respect to this new paid category for advertising by legal businesses, we will experiment with some of the methods traditionally employed in paid print classifieds.

We'd like to thank everyone who has provided helpful input over the past few weeks, all of which we've closely considered:

* Our users, whose suggestions have shaped every aspect of craigslist  
* Attorneys General, who have provided valuable constructive criticism  
* Law Enforcement officers nationwide, who have been hugely supportive  
* Legal businesses concerned at their right to advertise being questioned  
* EFF and other legal experts defending free speech and Internet law

We are optimistic that the new balance struck today will be an acceptable compromise from the perspective of these constituencies, and for the diverse US communities that value and rely upon craigslist.

Note: Our announced intention to contribute 100% of net revenues for the "erotic services" category to charity has been fulfilled, and will continue to be fulfilled, notwithstanding criticism questioning our good faith in this regard. However, in light of today's changes, and to avoid any future misunderstanding, we are making no representation regarding how revenue from the "adult services" category will be used. Our commitment to philanthropy remains however, and craigslist will continue to develop its charitable initiatives.

Is Craigslist's new "adult" category just a name change? "We're very encouraged that Craigslist is doing the right thing in eliminating its online red light district with prostitution and pornography in plain sight," said Connecticut attorney general Dick Blumenthal. "We'll be watching and investigating critically to make sure this measure is more than just a name change." Craigslist will cancel all existing Erotic Services ads in seven days, and start up the new category. In other words, it's just a name change.

There is one critical difference: Craigslist employees will be reviewing ads for tell-tale prostitution-friendly phrases. (For example, if your escort asks for a "donation" of "roses," she's actually talking dollars, and it's not optional.) Of course, this just means that the sex workers will go to other, less-monitored areas. Craigslist Missed Connections will never be the same! Or they'll go to other websites altogether.

The only highlight in this silliness: The image of hypernerdy Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, who constantly reminds everyone that his only role at the site is as a customer-service rep, manually reviewing sex ads. We reached Newmark on the phone. As we started to ask him how his customer-service department would handle the new workload, he reminded us there were other Craigslist customer-service personnel, and then referred calls to Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and PR rep Susan MacTavish Best. Come on, Craig: At the very least, this new assignment should give you something to talk about at parties besides how terrible newspapers are.

The petitioners are echoing media pressure in calling for Craigslist to shut down its Erotic Services section, thereby preventing the likes of Markoff from contacting 25-year-old "masseuses" through the site. Craigslist does charge for erotic listings, but donates the revenues from the category; Casual Encounters is free. The only way the site makes money is from job and apartment listings; Craigslist doesn't make a dime when you unload your old couch on the site. Frankly, Craig Newmark would make more money and have fewer headaches if everyone not looking for a job or a place to live went elsewhere.

And of course, if Craigslist banned Erotic Services, that's exactly what its clientele would do — buy and sell the same services elsewhere online. That's a far easier route to take, and would save Craigslist a lot of headaches complying with vice-squad subpoenas — which is why most websites ban the sex trade altogether.

"Craigslist is the largest source of prostitution in America," Cook County sheriff Tom Dart told ABC News. Nonsense. Horny, desperate men are the largest source of prostitution in America. And Dart should be happy that they're visiting a website which rolls over so easily when the police call.

What no one is saying: Laws banning prostitution, which makes women engaged in trading sex for money vulnerable to predators, are the real problem. Western Europe's boring brothels suggest that legalizing prostitution is a danger to sexual excitement but not public mores. Sure, boycott Craigslist! It's an easy move to stop spending money with a site that costs nothing — one that changes exactly nothing about the dynamic that got Julissa Brisman killed. Meanwhile, Newmark, the lazy millionaire, will keep doing his humble-nerd act all the way to the bank.

From New York...

From New York...

To China...

To Chicago...

To Washington State...

Oh, you get the idea. It was inevitable, right? An anonymous service; integrates well with a cell phone; includes direct messaging capability. See: someone's making money off microblogging.

Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart is suing Craigslist. He says it's "the single largest source of prostitution in the nation," and he's scheduled a press conference to discuss the move.

Why sue Craigslist? The site rolls over when the police come calling, and the data it gives up about its users regularly results in large-scale arrests for prostitution. In 2007, Dart's department arrested 254 people in a four-month-long bust. A similar bust in New York's Westchester County yielded 66 arrests. Police in Irvine, Calif. and Everett, Wa.directly credited Craigslist ads with helping them make arrests.

Why shut down such a rich vein? It's telling that Dart is making a big, public stink about prostitution on Craigslist. If his goal were stopping prostitution, he'd want to keep Craigslist open, providing his department with a steady source of leads. It's easier than staking out street corners.

No, Dart needs to be seen as stopping prostitution. And that requires calling out Craigslist. He'd better hope he doesn't succeed, because pushing the whores and johns to darker corners of the Internet will mean he and his men will have to work a lot harder to keep their arrest numbers up.

(Photo via KOMO)

Prosecutors brought charges against Warthen in October, after a long-running investigation whose highlight was a 2004 bust in her Oakland apartment. Police found $61,000 in cash there and in a storage locker; some of the bills were found in an old law-school book. Her husband, David Warthen, whom she married in May 2004, claimed that the money was a gift from him.

"I have paid off 100% of my loans, and I have tried to send a positive message to SF escorts re: assumptions about the nature and social status of women in the business," she wrote on an Internet message board devoted to "high-dollar hotties," investigators wrote in an affidavit filed in the case.

Prosecutors accused Cristina Warthen of failing to pay $25,424 in taxes on $133,000 in income in 2003, but in the settlement, she agreed to pay $313,000, the entire amount of her profits from what the IRS deemed an "illegal enterprise." She will also spend a year confined to her home.

Warthen has an "authorized biography" on Classmates.com. It reads: "I am a wannabe socialite and supporter to my crew of friends. I have four birds, three stepchildren and a husband." And her current employment? "Relax — I'm retired."

One thing that has always puzzled us: With her Stanford law degree, how did she manage to get in such deep trouble with the law? A person who represents himself is said to have a fool for her client. But Warthen hired professional help. Here's an email her lawyer, Jay Bettinger, sent us last year:

We attached our evidence, which includes a defamatory reference to my client as a “call-girl”.

We have noted and recorded your slanderous and unfounded comment below which was wrongly published in the email to at least four individuals. In particular, you have indicated that my client is a prostitute and you base the opinion on 124,000 search results in Google. This is patently false. See the attached screenshots. Clearly there is a pattern of behavior here and your email below supports this position.

The content is defamatory, slanderous and has had an adverse impact on my client. The content is also misleading in that it indicates to the reader to think that the “alleged” events transpired in 2008. The one article appears to be dated February, 2008, which is within the statutory 1 year period to assert defamation. Finally, the usage of my client’s names in metatags and within the link is not authorized and the defamatory tagging of references to my client is wrongful. We are curious to know how you came to use the pictures you have posted and why you have presumed that the pictures are of my client. It would seem that is wrongful as well. The content also falsely suggests that my client is affiliated with pornography.

We again request the removal of the content, slanderous metatags and references from any and all websites, blogs or other postings that you or your clients are affiliated with or otherwise have caused the posting. The next request will be a demand and will include attorneys’ fees.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation. We look forward to written confirmation that you and your clients will cooperate.

Jay Bettinger

That's the opinion Davis, who denied sleeping with Spitzer herself but pled guilty in October to charges of promoting prostitution, shared with Chaunce Hayden ofSteppin' Out, a publication which bills itself as "NY & NJ's #1 Entertainment Magazine." Of course, that's if Spears "cleaned herself up," Davis notes.

The rest of her top 10 — Paris Hilton, Angelina Jolie, Katie Holmes, Sarah Palin — is as much fantasy for the ex-madam as it is for her former clients. Why would their likes ever sell the reality of their bodies, when Hollywood makes the dream so much more profitable? Still, it's a fascinating look at the relentlessly commercial mindset of the sex trade. Davis's list, typos left in to keep it classy:

1. Britney Spears: If she cleaned herself up maybe I could get a thousand dollars an hour for her. But if was the old Britney before she went crazy I could have gotten $2,000 easy.
2. Paris Hilton: She would get $1,500 an hour. She's slender and doesn't have implants. She's blonde and I could get away with selling her as a Ford model.
3. Beth Ostrosky: I like Beth. She's tall and blonde. It's always a homerun if I can get a girl who's 5'9” or above. She's usually perfect. Beth would be in the upper ranking. I could get $2,000 an hour for her easy.
4. Katie Holmes: Katie would be very popular because she has that All American, college girl look. She would be super popular. Men want girls who look like Howard Stern's wife; the tall slender model type or they want that non-flashy, classically beautiful fresh face young look. The girl next door whom they could never get. They want the runway model they can't have now, or the prom queen they couldn't have then. I could probably get $2,500 an hour for Katie. Maybe even $3,000. I could max out on her.
5. Angelina Jolie: She would be my top girl. I call it my “Number one.” I would put her at $2,000 an hour. But you couldn't get her unless you booked her for 4 hours. I wouldn't let her go for just an hour. Maybe if you were a good client you could get her for an hour, but I would charge a lot more. At least $2,500.
6. Sarah Palin: (Laughs) I wouldn't have any market for her. She couldn't work for me. She's cute, but not for my kind of clients. There are escort agency's that specialize in specific kinds of demographics. She could work for a cheaper agency. Maybe a $300 dollar an hour type agency. I would call her a mid-range escort type.
7. Playboy Playmates: I had many Playmates call me for work. Many! I'm talking about centerfolds. But I would only work with 1 out of 5. Usually, they're boobs are too big or too fake looking. They look to California. For the most part I wouldn't use Playmates.
8. Lindsay Lohan: She would do great! She's got that fresh face and freckles. Men would eat her up! I could get $1,800 an hour for Lindsay….Easy! I would let her go for just the hour. She would work more volume for me. Short stays and busy all night. But I'm sure I could get clients to extend time with her if I asked.
9. Rihanna: I think she is stunning and gorgeous. If I were a client I would choose her. But honestly, I don't have a market for her. She couldn't work for me. It's unfortunate. The African American and Asian models never do well. Rihanna wouldn't bring in any business for me.
10. Melania Trump: She's hot. She would make a lot of money. But the one problem with her is that men don't like Jewish women and eastern European women. So I would have to lie about her nationality. Maybe say she's from Amsterdam or Sweden. Otherwise she would have trouble getting work. I would also change her name. I could get $2,000 an hour for her if she played along and didn't let it slip where she's from.

(Photo of Davis by Chaunce Hayden/Steppin' Out)

Why do so many Stanford Law graduates end up being prostitutes?

The long tail functions in sex work, too. Half of the 300 sex workers Venkatesh has interviewed work in the so-called "high end" of the business, but they hardly constitute half of sex trade workers. The majority are pulling the equivalent of paycheck-to-paycheck for barely middle-class wages; few get paid vacations or stock grants. Never does Venkatesh define what the high end is. Slate's photo of a high-heeled model leaning into a car is a cliché from another decade, before the Internet made streetwalking unprofitable.

Lawyers are a saving grace. Venkatesh proposes that client diversification is essential to sex workers, just as it is to financial firms, for making it through an economic downturn. Yet he believes this is difficult for workers to pull off in our closed professional networks. He's halfway there. Even though I had the reputation among my colleagues for entertaining (and consensually humiliating) lawyers, hedge fund guys, ex-military, and even a few who made good with their startups, that didn't mean those were the only types of clients we collectively had access to. Honestly, lawyers — the bread and butter of the $1,000+/hour market — were the clients who hopped from escort to escort the most, sampling everyone. A few were notorious for this, and we all did well for it, by sharing them.

Even high-end workers lose money by "paying for protection." He's part right, again: Successful high-end workers are more likely to pay a premium to start a corporation under a proxy board, or hire a private detective to figure out if they are under surveillance, or keep an understanding attorney/accountant on retainer just in case. This is the reality of running a cash-rich business, gray market or not — not an inevitable risk assumed from fucking for money.

(UPDATE: Original pic swapped out, Aug 21 2009)

(Pic via)

• "On first glance inside, the place is almost disappointingly tame." Watching porn performers and support staff breeze around prepping for a shoot, in flip-flops and ponytails, is probably the only breakout fetish genre yet to have a site devoted to it. Kink actually did produce a behind-the-scenes show, BehindKink.com. The name was prone to misunderstanding.
• "The models aren't actors." Don't kid yourself — anyone paid-to-play for a camera is performing, even if the end product is billed as "reality." Even if the actors involved have that same kind of sex off the clock. Despite the Bay Area's fetish for overdocumentation, very few people have an actual fetish for the camera itself. You want to watch a performance, even if you also want to believe the folks on screen "really are having a good time." Call it Porno's Paradox.
• "Kinky.com: Following the Web 2.0 trend of user-based content, Kinky.com will allow members and models to maintain user profiles, interact with one another on message boards, blog, and even date." It sounds like the obligatory social network that even less-ambitious porn companies feel oblige to hitch to their content wagons. At best, it'll give members a way to connect in person and live out the scenes they could previously only see on pay-per-view. Why sit home and poke when you can yes yes we know, we're done with that joke, too. Plus like we'd imply you shouldn't get laid for free.

It's unlikely that Buckmaster and Newmark would ever embrace the role of sex trade stewardship in the public square. Because they don't need to in order to remain successful. But to walk the laissez-faire line towards sex work they do can only take their image as "The Good Guys" (or at least, "The Not Quite So Greedy Guys") so far. There's no denying that Erotic Services never was just an innocent home for legal, consensual fantasy-for-hire. So Craigslist collaborates with law enforcement to police the site's own users.

But Craigslist users are not some special breed of "pervert" or "paedophile" preying on children — the traceability of online behavior just makes it easier to see what already took place behind closed doors. After all, McKesson also used old-timey calling cards with salacious photographs to market his services in a throwback to Storyville's heyday. This is the "saddest part" of these stories, not the laptops and the blurred-face photos the media and law enforcement trot out fetishistically. The next time Craigslist or any online service is called to task to explain what they are doing to end the exploitation of minors, they should start by explaining its ancient history, not new surveillance technology.

At age 22, Patricia West already has her small-business model fully launched. She's done her market research, knows how to advertise online and has a competitive rate structure. There's just one problem: She works in the world's oldest profession, which is illegal.

Sure, it's way more boring to frame escorting just like any other work-from-home freelance gig, but it's increasingly the case. It's a great strategy, PR-wise. Everyone gets worked up over the idea of sassy streetwalkers arguing over who owns which corner. But really, how could San Francisco voters get seriously up in arms over prostitutes clocking overtime hunched over their laptops at Ritual Roasters, answering email?

(Photo by St. James Infirmary)