Airbnb and NYC bury the hatchet

Honestly, I wish NYC would have stood their ground. I'm curious to know what their rationale was for acquiescing to Airbnb. I find myself feeling less and less sympathy for companies like Airbnb & Uber when they bump into long-standing regulations and then try and claim they're different and those regs shouldn't apply. As someone else recently commented on a HN Uber article link, the "sharing economy" is a total sham because anything that involves making a profit is by definition not sharing.

In reality, Uber, Airbnb, etc. have just come up with a way for everyday folks to collectively enter business spaces that weren't conveniently accessible before. There's no valid reason why those individuals shouldn't be subject to the same rules as the existing players ("the rules are bad" isn't a valid reason), nor is there a valid reason why in instances like this the facilitators shouldn't be held to the same standard as any other facilitator like print classifieds. These companies' apps are nothing more than a very convenient, well-engineered list of classifieds, and the drivers/hosts/contractors are no different than any other contract cabbie or bed & breakfast host who are subject to background checks, permits, etc. If the existing rules suck, change them.