Legal

Chicago Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart on March 5th, 2009 sued Craigslist, the popular internet classifieds website. He is accusing them of being a one of the largest sources of prostitution in the United States.

The federal lawsuit filed by Dart's office claims that Craigslist's erotic section is a powerful marketing tool for pimps and prostitutes and makes it easier for criminals to elude police.]

A Craigslist spokeswoman said that compared to all of the legal classifieds on the site, these type of criminal acts are rare. She also said that Craigslist constantly helps law enforcement to track down people who post illegal classified ads.

Sex workers use online classifieds because they find that sites like Craigslist helps to reduce physical violence by customers. This often means as an added benefit, that pimps are not needed. What Craigslist does is offer a buffer between the prostitute and the client through the anonymous email system. Plus, most hookers find that people who use the internet to find sex, tend to have a much lesser chance of being violent.

Police also have used Craigslist to pursue criminal investigations. One example was given from Seattle, where police arrested 71 men in response to one sex ad on Craigslist.

For more on this story, check out Cnet News.

There have been a few articles lately regarding who owns all the user profile information and communications that people do on social networks and online dating sites. It really came to the forefront in the news when Facebook updated their Terms of Use a few weeks ago that readdressed the ownership issue. Basically Facebook wanted almost complete control of all user generated content.

irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sub-license) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), ...

Many Facebook users complained about these new terms and with all the media attention it was getting, Facebook has rewritten their Terms Of Use and has posted a draft copy. They are even allowing users to comment and vote on the new proposed Principles and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities For Users. This is a surprising move that should make many Facebook users happy.

In the online dating world, dating sites have Terms of Service that can vary wildly. Some are similar to Facebook's old terms and some to the new terms of use. The one thing with dating sites you may wonder about is how long do they keep all this information for and what they do with it. With most of the popular dating sites they have strict privacy policies about who may see what information. As far as with how long the information is kept, it is all over the map. Dating sites like eHarmony doesn't delete your information from their database. With eHarmony's 200 plus questionnaire, this is a good thing as if you ever need to return to the site, your information will still be available to you when you reactivate your account. The flip side of this for example, is Plenty Of Fish. If your account is inactive for 6 months to a year then your account will be deleted. Not a big deal if you are a returning user as it only takes less than 5 minutes to fill out any required information for the profile.

For more information on the Facebook new terms of use, read PC World. To better understand the life of your online dating profile on many of the popular dating sites, read ComputerWorld.

Back in June, 2008 we reported that the Arizona Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Great Expectations. Yesterday, Attorney General Terry Goddard announced that a $500,000 settlement was reached.

Great Expectations must pay $250,000 in restitution to eligible consumers who were victimized by the company's deceptive practises. The remaining $250,000 will be paid to the state for consumer fraud prevention.

Terms of the settlement also require Great Expectations to correct its alleged deceptive business practises. According to the lawsuit these included:

• Misrepresenting to consumers the overall number of Great Expectations' participating members.
• Misrepresenting to consumers that it had conducted a criminal background check on all of its members.
• Using membership agreements that illegally extended initial memberships beyond one year.
• Unlawfully obtaining consumers' credit information as soon as they arrived at the Great Expectations office.
• Using high-pressure sales tactics during one-on-one, hours-long presentations to consumers.

ABC News has a story that looks at Sugar Daddy dating to find out if this type of dating arrangement is a fun way to explore love or if it is prostitution. The most famous Sugar Daddy arrangement was when Anne Nicole Smith went out with, and ultimately married the Texas oil billionaire, J. Howard Marshall in the mid 90s. ABC examines a couple in New York. Melanie is an 18 year old part time model who is going out with a guy named Chris. Chris is a 40 year old multi millionaire who also happens to be married. They both see the relationship as mutually beneficial. He gets to feel young again and has a sexual companion (I'm not sure where the wife is with all this) and Melanie gets a $5,000 a month rent apartment, all her bills paid, and to travel for free. According to Melanie:

... a sugar baby is a relationship you're dating someone but you have a monthly allowance ... You make it clear if you want to have sex or you don't want to have sex.

Good Morning America also weighed in on the subject , some on the panel called the woman in these type of relationship escorts and prostitutes while others said it was more like dating with perks.

As long as no one is getting hurt or doing anything illegal I usually don't have a problem with it. I just wonder why in stories like this, it is always the woman who has to defend herself. Chris is an active participant in the relationship as well. In fact, since Chris is married, he should be the one on trial.

For more information on the story The Anatomy of Dating a Sugar Daddy, visit ABC News. For a full list of our reviewed Sugar Daddy dating sites, check out our [staticpage: Wealthy-Singles-Dating-Sites] category.

Between December 1, 2008 and January 5, 2009 a total of 1,629 online dating sites registered with Japans local public security boards. This is in response to a stricter law which regulates dating sites in Japan. The National Police Agency (NPA) said there was 432 applications filed for the dating sites which was a lot less than expected. It is assumed some dating services shut down due to the law being implemented. The largest application had 286 dating sites listed on it.

The last time we talked about dating regulations in Japan was last January when we wrote about Japans NPA wants Stricter Regulations for Dating Sites. It looks like the NPA got their wish.

For more information on this story visit JapanToday.

Back in June 2007, a lawsuit was filed against True.com (TrueBeginnings) by Thomas Wong at the District Court of Dallas County, Texas. Mr. Wong at that time (and I believe he still is) was represented by the law firms Tycko & Zavareei LLP and Crews, Shepherd & McCarty LLP. The lawsuit is primarily about the billing and renewal practices of True.com and the difficulties members have in canceling their accounts.

The Online Dating Insider has posted new information regarding this lawsuit. True.com’s motion for summary judgment was denied on December 3rd, 2008 and Mr. Wong's class action lawsuit will now be able to move forward.

For information on the original filing in 2007 visit The Earth Times.