Agree completely. But publicly announcing you're going to ignore the state AG amidst (a) claims by Albany that AirBnB is ignoring prior agreements and (b) an election season bringing in more populist, pro-renter candidates is bold in the wrong way.

As I read the article, the AG is targeting AirBNB, not individuals. The article calls the subpoena, "part of an investigation into whether the company is breaking the law by allowing its users to rent rooms in private homes." It certainly seems reasonable as part of such an investigation to determine the scope of illegal activity, which would require finding out fine-grained details on individual hosts.

AirBnB are themselves guilty of spamming, so their willing customers don't merit this kind of consideration.

The NY State AG is used as a stepping stone for higher office. They have more money than god and Schneiderman is loving this fight. Airbnb is not going to win here.

A judge will decide it but he will probably get the info on all the people that have rented their places for under 30 days.

It's worth noting that what NY state government does with AirBnB is not necessarily for some people of NY state.