A New Orleans business has sued San Jose's PayPal because the Internet financial giant won't allow the company to use its service to collect donations for Hurricane Katrina victims.The company, CFS.com, is angry -- angry enough to file a lawsuit Friday in Santa Clara County Superior Court. Its employees suffered losses from the hurricane, the suit says, and the Web site's supporters were thwarted when they wanted to help out.
Why would PayPal do that? How outrageous! How callous! How downright uncharitable! Well, there is this: CFS stands for Cruising for Sex. And its main purpose is to hook up homosexuals.
The site also contains numerous pictures of men interested in other men. And it sells pornographic videos. And some of its advertisers sell a variety of sex toys.
And PayPal -- an intermediary for money exchanges on the Net -- wants nothing to do with it.
PayPal told the New Orleans company it was suspending the charitable collections because CFS.com violated PayPal's policy against "the use of PayPal in the sale of adult, sexually oriented or obscene materials or services.''
CFS said it was doing no such thing.
When Hurricane Katrina was bearing down on New Orleans, two employees of CFS -- Dorian-Gray Alexander and Troy (no last name given) -- fled the area. "Dorian and Troy sustained serious, virtually incalculable losses due to the tragedy of Katrina,'' the lawsuit reads.
The company was launched in 1995 to "entertain gay men,'' said Keith Griffith, its founder and a New Orleans resident. It has chat rooms, personals and listings. "It's a resource for any guy who wants to figure out how to hook up with another man,'' he said.
And, he added, "We have a good relationship with the men who use our site and we know they'd like to pitch in to help.''
They did, giving about $1,500 to $2,000 before PayPal pulled the plug.
"PayPal does not permit our services to be used on adult Web sites,'' Sara Bettencourt, a company spokeswoman, said Monday. "And when the PayPal buttons were on this Web site, they were on pages that had adult services.''
Neither Alexander nor Troy suffered much loss to their homes, Griffith said, but they have close family members who lost everything. Troy, for example, has a dozen relatives who have moved in with him. Alexander is living temporarily in Atlanta.
CFS.com wants a court to order PayPal to restore its service, which the suit describes as a near monopoly on the Internet. And they want damages.
PayPal has not been officially served with the lawsuit yet.
As for having the PayPal button on a page with ads for adult services, Griffith says he needs the concupiscent listings to pay the bills.
"Unfortunately,'' he said, "I can't convince American Airlines and the such to advertise with us.''
from Mercury News
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