CL should be held culpible to a degree. They cannot make money from ads without sharing any responsibility whatsoever.
Craigs list is a pretty simple thing. And it is free except for the employment section. It doesn’t even have popups or banners.
Frankly, making Craigslist responsible is like making Glock responsible for the robbery of a liquor store when the perp used a Glock.
The main criminal is the one that ran the ad. That person should be prosecuted. But the people that took property are also culpible. After all, would you just walk onto someones property and take their horse becase an ad in the paper said that anything on the property was free for the taking? Would you not want to talk to a human being and maybe even get something in writing as well? I certainly would.
This is actually pretty black and white. The owner of the property is the victim of the guy that wrote the ad and those that took property without permission (stole it). Neither Craigslist nor the owner of the road on which people drove to his property share any responsibility whatsoever.
Craigslist is free. It doesn’t cost anything to post an ad.