The battle between Craigslist and South Carolina attorney general Henry McMaster took another turn Wednesday when the online classifieds site sued McMaster for declaratory relief and a restraining order.

The battle between Craigslist and South Carolina attorney general Henry McMaster took another turn Wednesday when the online classifieds site sued McMaster for declaratory relief and a restraining order.

McMaster said earlier this month that he would sue Craigslist within 10 days unless it deleted the South Carolina portion of its "erotic services" section. A week later, Craigslist said it would dump "erotic services" in favor of a monitored "adult services" section; all posts would be deleted after their seven-day expiration.

McMaster, however, stuck to the 10-day timeframe and said on Saturday that he still planned to sue the Web site because South Carolina posts remained. An incensed Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist's chief executive, demanded an apology for McMaster's "unreasonable and unfair" demands.

That apology must still be in the mail.

"Mr. McMaster's repeated threats of criminal prosecution should we refuse to shut down Craigslist for South Carolina have left us little choice but to seek declaratory relief before the court," Buckmaster wrote in a Wednesday blog post.

Buckmaster argued that the only way to definitively comply with McMaster's request is to remove the entire South Carolina section of Craigslist. That is not an option, he wrote, given that South Carolinians' usage of the site has "exploded' in the last two years, with some cities experiencing 2000 percent growth.

"The open architecture of Craigslist, quintessential to the value it provides for users, simply does not allow for the absolute prevention of solicitation or pornography, with respect to any of its categories and functions," he wrote.

McMaster's office said the defensive legal action was "good news [because] it shows that Craigslist is taking the matter seriously for the first time."

"More importantly, overnight they have removed the erotic services section from their website, as we asked them to do," McMaster said.

That statement is slightly misleading. Craigslist said last week that all existing "erotic services" posts would expire within seven days  which is today. As a result, "erotic services" has now been removed from all cities, not just those in South Carolina.

"Unfortunately, we had to inform [Craigslist] of possible state criminal violations concerning their past practices to produce a serious response," McMaster continued. "We trust they will now adhere to the higher standards they have promised. This office and the law enforcement agencies of South Carolina will continue to monitor the site to make certain that our laws are respected."

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) agreed with Craigslist.

"Buckmaster is exactly right," EFF staff attorney Matt Zimmerman wrote in a blog post. "As we and many others have noted, Craigslist was never at risk of incurring criminal liability for material posted by their users because Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act clearly protects them."

McMaster and other attorneys general that went after Craigslist over the section "took advantage of Craigslist's previously demonstrated interest in working with law enforcement to address legitimate concerns and rewarded such voluntary cooperation with even more belligerent posturing."