Myredbook.com gets shut down
So there is this website - Myredbook.com. It advertised strippers, escorts, massage, BDSM and it had reviews for the providers. It was a pretty popular West Coast based site with about 10,000 sex workers on it. It was like the "adult services" of Backpage or Craigslist. I first learned of the website a few years ago. Well just last week the FBI shut it all down and took control of it.
Here's the story.....
http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/...te-5588516.php
The FBI's shutdown of a Bay Area-based website that became ago-to marketplace for prostitution is once again raising questions about howfar online operators can go in claiming immunity from the actions ofthird-party customers - a cornerstone of online innovation.
Federal authorities said the alleged proprietors ofMyRedbook.com - Eric Omuro,53, of Mountain View, and 40-year-old Annmarie Lanoce of Rocklin (PlacerCounty) - were part of a racketeering enterprise, profiting from their creationof a site that had explicit photos of prostitutes, "menus of sexualservices" and customer reviews.
The FBI seized the site last week, and a grand jury indictedthe pair on charges of using the mail and the Internet to facilitateprostitution. Omuro was also charged with 24 counts of money laundering.
Prosecutors said the defendants went beyond hostingclassified ads. They listed acronyms for sex acts in a "Terms andAcronyms" section of the website, and sold VIP memberships that allowedcustomers "access to 'private forums' and heightened capabilities tosearch reviews of the prostitution services."
But the case remains somewhat of a mystery. Prosecutors havenot detailed the evidence against Omuro and Lanoce, and they have notcommented. Though the website was known as a connection point for prostitutesand johns, it ostensibly offered "escorts," exotic dancers andmassages.
Legal protection
Legal experts said the case might test prosecutors' abilityto go after a website despite protections in Section 230 of the CommunicationsDecency Act of 1996, which says Web service providers cannot be "treatedas the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another informationcontent provider."
The law protects a company like Yelp from getting sued overthe content of its customers' reviews, and largely shields Craigslist fromliability for actions that arise from its users' listings. But the lawexplicitly states that it doesn't "impair the enforcement" of federalcriminal laws.
In October, San Francisco resident Ross WilliamUlbricht was arrested for allegedly running an underground website,Silk Road, in which customers bought and sold drugs, guns and other contraband.
HanniFakhoury, a staff attorney for the ElectronicFrontier Foundation, said defense attorneys for MyRedbook.com - likethose in the Silk Road case - might argue that their clients had no role in theillegal transactions on their websites.
Fakhoury pointed out that classifieds sites like Craigslist areconsiderably different from sites like Silk Road that are seemingly visited anddesigned only for illegal activity.
"If Silk Road is one end of the spectrum and you have awebsite like Craigslist on the other end that has listings for apartments, carsand furniture as well as some illegal activity," he said, "thequestion becomes, where on that spectrum does MyRedbook.com fall?"
Fakhoury said such a defense would be a challenge,especially if prosecutors presented evidence that the owners knew what was happeningon the website or facilitated it.
Proof of facilitation can vary, said attorney ShahrzadRadbod.
Roommates.com case
In the BerkeleyTechnology Law Journal, she wrote about a 2008 lawsuit againstRoommates.com in which a Ninth Circuit court ruled that the site's operatorswere not protected by the 1996 act. The plaintiffs in that case argued that thesite violated the Fair Housing Act in requiring users to state age, race andgender in their roommate preferences, and the court ruled that because thewebsite had designed the drop-down menu options for those fields, theycontributed to "the unlawfulness of the content."
For MyRedbook.com, who put up the "Terms andAcronyms" section is a possibly damning question, Radbod said.
"If the service providers posted the acronyms, itdefinitely displays that they were promoting illegal activity on thewebsite," she said.
Legal experts said while it was predictable that thegovernment would crack down on illegal Internet activity, the Silk Road andMyRedbook.com cases are some of the first examples of federal action onthird-party content sites.
Prior civil litigation tended to favor upholding theimmunities offered under the 1996 act. Eric Goldman,a professor and co-director of the High TechLaw Institute at the Santa Clara University School of Law, said there are moreexamples of the act prevailing than there are of it failing, citing inparticular a 2009 lawsuit brought by the sheriff of Cook County in Illinois,who sought to hold Craigslist responsible for illegal activity in its eroticservices section. A district court rejected the claim.
Craigslist removed the section in 2010 under pressure fromthe public and a contingent of state attorneys general, but legal experts saidit did not appear to be obligated to do so.
'Frontal assault'
The MyRedbook.com case "seems like a frontal assault onan issue that prosecutors have not been able to make progress on in thepast," Goldman said.
He added that the Communications Decency Act "remainsthe foundation of the Internet. We're still seeing innovation in the Internetcommunity and Section 230 is an integral part of that."
Opponents of some of the protections, though, continue tofight the law, saying it promotes illegal behavior. In May, legislation passedin the House ofRepresentatives that would penalize Web operators for knowinglyprofiting from the advertising of sexual activity that involves a minor or aperson who was forced or coerced into the act.
Re: Myredbook.com gets shut down
Good. I hated that site. There was a whole forum where guys would tell each other where they could fuck strung out teenage streetwalkers for $20.
That was the most disgusting website I've ever encountered as an escort.
Re: Myredbook.com gets shut down
While this news article ... and the FBI themselves ... are ostensibly 'blaming' this bust on the violation of prostitution laws, in point of fact it's highly probable that this is the result of 'Operation Choke Point' ( see thread in Industry Insight ). I would offer as support the fact that the operator of MyRedBook.com was slapped with 24 counts of money laundering charges.
Re: Myredbook.com gets shut down
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Melonie
While this news article ... and the FBI themselves ... are ostensibly 'blaming' this bust on the violation of prostitution laws, in point of fact it's highly probable that this is the result of 'Operation Choke Point' ( see thread in Industry Insight ). I would offer as support the fact that the operator of MyRedBook.com was slapped with 24 counts of money laundering charges.
Another article with the court papers - http://www.sfexaminer.com/sanfrancis...nt?oid=2834783
Re: Myredbook.com gets shut down
hmmm ... by pure coincidence no doubt ... all 24 of the transactions cited for the money laundering charges were through B of A, and B of A has also entered into a 'partnership' with the DOJ and various state agencies to co-operate / provide account activity info for the DOJ's 'Operation Choke Point' operations ( in exchange for the DOJ not issuing additional subpoenas and investigations against B of A itself ). See which specifically refences another 'focus' of Operation Choke Point investigations ( i.e. payday lenders ) but proves the existence of B of A co-operation / account activity monitoring.
Operation Choke Point specifically targets the financial transactions of certain types of businesses which have been targeted as 'high risk' by the FDIC. Among these 'high risk' businesses are online Adult businesses, online Gun sellers, online Gambling sites and a host of others ... see . Operation Choke Point was also responsible for the recent forced closure of the personal bank accounts of some porn stars, a 'mainstream' adult video producer, etc.
Re: Myredbook.com gets shut down
Quote:
Originally Posted by
Melonie
... <snip> Operation Choke Point was also responsible for the recent forced closure of the personal bank accounts of some porn stars, a 'mainstream' adult video producer, etc. ... <snip>
So I get that adult businesses may have more chargebacks, etc., and are therefore more 'risky'. If their 'secret' purpose of this is to make it harder for them to conduct business, even though their business is legal, are they not considering that as legal businesses using legitimate banks, the government is getting their fair share of taxes. Making them revert to cash will likely result in less taxes collected. Hello Bitcoin!