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Sounds like they were just saying they host out of the AlexHost DC, which makes sense since AlexHost does colo.
im pretty sure they were 'hacked' cuz Moldavia doesnt have a strong Russian influence....NOT AT ALL
A few months ago, DigitalOcean cc-ing about 300 people. Some people just hit reply to all, maybe they want to re-invent the mailing list in an old-school way
Without your comment - nobody except 1513 customers will know about fuck up.
Now - everyone knows.
And to be honest, knowing stats of email delivery/read rate.
We're talking about 30-35 customers ONLY. The rest 1480+ customers does not even read the message/opens it.
Good Job Wicked. Good job.
In theory, yes, but this is (after all) the Republic of Moldova, and in practice, I can imagine that at worst, they'll receive a slap on the hand for this
PhoenixNAP did something similar a few months back, I don't think there were that many emails though
AlexHost.com is one of the few (if not the only) EU datacenter that openly states that they offer DMCA ignored hosting, in spite of having an actual datacenter, their founders having public LinkedIn profiles, etc. The only saving grace for them in this case is that they keep the name of their HQ hidden somewhat, but one of the founders gave multiple interviews in the past, so you can easily find the name of the datacenter itself, and some of the employee names, too.
The sheer amount of incompetence (CC'ing all of their VPS clients notwithstanding) is truly perplexing, and makes you question whether or not they have any legal representation that ever had a chance to use their law degrees.
But, considering the amount of shady stuff that they host, it's not going to be an issue. They're probably still too small to attract the likes of ACE, but there's a high chance that they will get rekt in the future.
Offering any type of "managed" solutions when you don't do any due diligence, and when you host shady stuff is a recipe for disaster, but publicly announcing what type of clientele you're looking for (DMCA ignored) is even worse, and could potentially cost you everything.
If you're going to host crap, at least be sneaky about it. Ecatel had it down to a science and it still wasn't enough to keep the copyright organizations and LE at bay.
How many clients would use their real name and email IDs to signup for such service anyway
Those using CC, PayPal or whatever that's not a crypto-related payment would, and that I assume would be quite a big amount?
I am pretty sure that AlexHost does not require customers to use real info when signing up, even if paying with PayPal/CC.
DMCA is United States copyright law, beside that they are not even located or operate datacenter in the EU. They have their own Moldovan copyright laws, but that's still not DMCA so why would they care about it?
So what exactly would you do?
Air-to-surface missile from the nearest NATO aircraft base to the Moldova or how exactly knowing their "hidden" HQ address changes anything?
Every copyright notice sent in good faith is effectively valid (the only thing that differs is the formatting, and some may call it EUCD, or quite simply just "Copyright Notice" without mentioning DMCA or EUCD at all), whether you're in Moldova or El Salvador -- you have to abide by it if your company and/or you use services from U.S. or EU entities.
If you're in Iran, for example, and don't rely on any U.S. or EU infrastructure, payment services, etc. Then you may as well ignore them, but you would be quite limited as far as the clientele goes.
Keeping it hidden, even a little, ensures that their mainstream cover isn't brought up and that their founders aren't CC'd, and that their banking and mainstream relationships aren't CC'd when people complain about them ignoring copyright complaints and such.
It's still very shoddily done and it's going to bite them in the ass, one way or another.
Some tips when operating any business that attracts complaints and/or shady clientele:
As a hosting provider, you have to follow the local and the international laws, and things that are illegal in one country, are probably illegal in other countries, too. Just because you saw other hosting providers doing it, and aren't in any trouble right now doesn't mean that they won't be in trouble in a year or two.
There are obviously certain things that could be legally hosted in different jurisdictions (but could still hurt your business relationships), like for example, you can't host any type of pornography in Russia (the ISP could be fined) but you could host it in the Netherlands without any problems.
I won't even start it what all is wrong with your US-centric views above ... But as example in small EU country I come from it's not illegal to download/torrent any copyrighted material as long it's for private use and you're not selling it.
So you can stick all DMCA complains into your a** as ISPs don't even forward them to us. On a national level. This may change in the future but for now it is what it is. Every EU directive need to be translated into local legislation without interfering with constitution of the individual member state. And then also need to be enforced.
I can imagine that things aren't any better in some remote Moldova which isn't even part of the EU and not publicly known HQ address make absolutely no difference for them. Like you said, they don't even hide who they are. Because with DMCA letters you can't do a shit to them.
You are delusional. As soon as moldova hit certain treshold for copyright issues (iptv piracy booming) it will bent to the same copyright moguls as restof the world. And when that bending will happen - people will go to jail and "services" will colapse.
Maybe in moldova today is good, but tomorrow there will be raid by the police and gg.
Bro in Poland almost everyone pirates, USA companies tried suing some torrenters in like 2010 or something, it was largely unsuccesful and they fucked off ever since
To me it seems right opposite. But then again, I live in one of those countries where no one gives a shit about DMCA and you obviously don't so what would you know...
Depends on politics. When political force will shift towards "freedom" and "democracy" copyright office will refresh. Just read torrentfreak.com
If someone went against piracy in their campagin basically no one would vote for them
Yes sure, but that's not directly related to what I said and different experience from one country to the other.
They always can pull "think about children" crap or smth. I live in Lithuania, here is also "dmca free" views, but majority does not understand what it is, so politics in that area is extremely corrupt.
We voted against article 13 lol
We have even officially registered The Pirate Party They did not win any seats in parliament yet but they are getting stronger every year. On the last elections they received around 1,5% votes
I don't post my views, I post what's meant to be common sense.
As far as downloading of movies and TV shows goes, you are unlikely to find any problems doing so in small countries. But try uploading a local movie or TV show, and see whether or not they would attempt to prosecute you criminally for doing so if you didn't cover your tracks. Regardless of whether or not you did it out of the good of your heart, or to make money: they don't care.
Also, no one really cares about enforcing such things, especially when the quality of life is low, unless it's about the locally produced content. Then, miraculously, laws suddenly exist... and instead of the complaints going to trash, they are addressed and the ISP is subpoena'd.
Imagine yourself as an owner of an international business, you have clients from tens of different countries, and you have various business relationships (domains, hosting, payment processing, software, etc), and since it's an international business, you rely on a bunch of U.S. and EU operated companies.
Do you think that you could simply say: "Ah, who cares about DMCA's...", start ignoring them, reap the benefits of doing so, and have no consequences down the road? Unfortunately, both words and actions have consequences.
Simply writing that you will ignore DMCA's on your website could cost you your payment processing, or your relationship with a datacenter. Even worse, when you're operating your own datacenter. You should kinda know better, at least for the sake of your employees, if not for your own sake.
You as an individual won't have any issues whatsoever, but if you end up operating a business like the one we're discussing, and you become a big enough of an annoyance to rightsholders... You will most definitely find out that the world is a very, very small and unforgiving place.
No, you post your US- centric opinion about things you don't know much. Common sense have nothing to do with it. AlexHost is perfect example of this. And that's not because of their HQ is "hidden" - that's just nonsense, but because of no one gives a shit about DMCA in places they operate.
I know that's beyond of your understanding and I don't mind it, we live in different places, but it is what it is and your opinion can't change the facts that they are doing it and get away with it, just like many other non-US ISPs.
The only thing there matter is local legislation and how/if they enforce it or like @szymonp above said for Poland: "USA companies tried suing some torrenters in like 2010 or something, it was largely unsuccesful and they fucked off ever since".
All this may change in the future, but right now is it what it is. And it's not Moldova exclusive.
Well, companies like AlexHost are doing it and as long as local legislation don't touch them you and your DMCA can't do a shit to them. Their "we don't give a shit about DMCA" operation is a hard fact, not your opinion.
You're comparing apples to oranges.
Case 1: Young student from Moldova decides to download Netflix's "Orange Is The New Black" through one of the torrent trackers without using any protection whatsoever. What would happen to him? Nothing whatsoever. Would that change in the future? Unlikely. Quality of life is quite low, and the copyright organizations wouldn't even attempt to pursue any action against individuals in countries like that.
Case 2: Young entrepreneur from Moldova decides to start his own "offshore" hosting company and he decides to ignore copyright complaints. Considering that it's an international hosting company, he has to have various payment methods, and he has to deal with datacenters from different countries. The business is a success, and he's actively gaining new clients, but the copyright notices are also increasing. What do you think would happen to him eventually? Would he start losing any of his payment methods, or perhaps, datacenter relationships because of how he advertises his business, and because of to whom he advertises his services to?
Would he be criminally prosecuted if enough pressure is applied by copyright organizations? Would he lose his business, or simply be fined?
If you answered "yes" to most of these, you would be right.
Small pickings... no one is going to care, but grow large enough, and you will see how fast they're going to come after you.
Seems like I am talking to the wall... and you still believe that US is a whole world.
I think I am done here.
You confuse me for a fed, which I am not.
I'll say something else and stay out of the topic, for I have spoken too much already.
Everything is legal until you get caught, and you could maybe blame it on the legal representation, or your own misinterpretation of the law, but there comes a time when people start asking questions, and they see that you're quite clearly making money, and that you host a large % of pirate websites... You're going to be made an example of, it's as simple as that.
It has nothing to do with the jurisdiction, it's to do with how many people you've pissed off, and how far they're willing to go. Hosting providers are an easy target, and you're going to see a lot of them getting rekt.
Today they can pass any law because piracy is not mainstream anymore. Nobody cares enough to protest, unlike in 2000s and early 2010s.
Decade ago it was more convenient to pirate stuff than pay for it. Now people are cucked by Netflix and give you a weird look once you mention torrents.