Does this refer to someone selling something for their company that sells used items under there own personal account?

I agree that the TOS change was to give CL grounds to go after major offenders, and the first targets, if there are any more, will probably be technology-based providers, not multifamily companies hiring interns or third parties to do manual postings. Even so, we decided to let the (very) few customers we were doing postings for know about the TOS. They are all conservative and opted to start doing them in house in light of this information.

Computer technology has become so inexpensive that we tend to think of Internet hosting as free. But the truth of the matter, is that CL incurs some small cost per post. A few posts here or there don't matter, but when you have many systems submitting thousands of posts per day, it adds up. Not to mention, it's easier to over post with these tools which is anathema to the folks at CL.

I think the spirit of this rule-and frankly most of craigslist TOS- is to deter spammers and give CL legal recourse in seriously abusive cases. In other words they are not out to get apartment communities that post legitimate units regardless of how it is done or even if you post a bit more than you should(technically).

CL is most concerned about the "work at home" jobs or the "business opportunities" that are spammed daily across the site.

I also see some major gray area in this rule. Is the marketing assistant that you pay $10 per hour a third party? At what point is someone not a third party? Who is to say that the property manager is not a 3rd party? After-all, it is not technically their apartment that is up for rent. One could argue that you might be able to haul every independent rental agent into court for acting as a third party.

Craigslist provides an awesome service for businesses. It's the 11th most popular website and we get to use it for free - in exchange for following the terms of use. The problem here is a 3rd party poster who violated the terms by doing completely automated posts. Just make sure your 3rd part poster is legit. The RentLinx Craigslist Helper has assisted with hundreds of thousands of posts since 2006 - with no problems.

Mike - I'm with you, I'm curious to see an example of a company actually being fined legitimately.

When you think about it what Craigslist started out being and what it has become are two totally different animals. It was for individuals to connect to other individuals (c 2 c). Over the last 4 to 5 years mostly it has become a b 2 c, with companies figuring out ways to get around CL way of doing business.

It looks like businesses need to band together to help each other. I am not sure how that will happen, but it may need to happen.