Posted on 07/20/2010 5:25:13 AM PDT by Red Badger
After the U.S. Government took action against several sites connected to movie streaming recently, nerves are jangling over the possibility that this is just the beginning of a wider crackdown. Now it appears that a free blogging platform has been taken down by its hosting provider on orders from the U.S. authorities on grounds of “a history of abuse”. More than 73,000 blogs are out of action as a result.
Hot on the heels of recent threats from Vice President Joe Biden and Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator Victoria Espinel directed at sites offering unauthorized movies and music, last month U.S. authorities targeted several sites they claimed were connected to the streaming of infringing video material.
‘Operation In Our Sites‘ targeted several sites including TVShack.net, Movies-Links.TV, FilesPump.com, Now-Movies.com, PlanetMoviez.com, ThePirateCity.org, ZML.com, NinjaVideo.net and NinjaThis.net. In almost unprecedented action, the domain names of 7 sites were seized and indications are that others – The Pirate Bay and MegaUpload – narrowly avoided the same fate.
Fears remain, however, that this action is only the beginning, and that more sites will be targeted as the months roll on. Indeed, TorrentFreak has already received information that other sites, so far unnamed in the media, are being monitored by the authorities on copyright grounds.
Now, according to the owner of a free WordPress platform which hosts more than 73,000 blogs, his network of sites has been completely shut down on the orders of the authorities.
Blogetery.com has been with host BurstNet for 7 months but on Friday July 9th the site disappeared. The following Monday the owner received an email from BurstNet:
Due to the history of abuse and on going abuse on this ‘bn.***********’ server.
We have opted to terminate this server, effective immediately. This termination applies to: bn.affiliateplex.com
Abuse Department BurstNET Technologies, Inc
Further correspondence received the following response:
Bn.xx*********** was terminated by request of law enforcement officials, due to material hosted on the server.
We are limited as to the details we can provide to you, but note that this was a critical matter and the only available option to us was to immediately deactivate the server.
…and a later clarification:
Please note that this was not a typical case, in which suspension and notification would be the norm. This was a critical matter brought to our attention by law enforcement officials. We had to immediately remove the server.
“We notified him [the Blogetery owner] when we terminated it [the server], and we refunded him his money to his account, because he has other servers with us If he wants the refund to his card, we can easily do that. However, it should be the least of his concerns,” A BurstNet representative later confirmed.
“Simply put: We cannot give him his data nor can we provide any other details. By stating this, most would recognize that something serious is afoot.”
Due to the fact that the authorities aren’t sharing information and BurstNet are sworn to secrecy, it is proving almost impossible to confirm the exact reason why Blogetery has been completely taken down. The owner does, however, admit to handling many copyright-related cease and desists in the past, albeit in a timely manner as the DMCA requires.
Nevertheless, a couple of quick Google searches which are likely to turn up blogs which link to copyright material appear to do just that – here, here and here. That said, on any network this large this type of activity is bound to happen. Many thousands of blogs on the same platform would have been perfectly legal.
“All of the users are without service just like when the Pirate Bay raids happened and all the people who were on the host sites were also taken down,” pointed out an annoyed Blogetery user who contacted TorrentFreak. “I have lost my personal site also and I don’t have any way to contact the owner since his contact info was on the blogetery.com site & that was the only way to contact him.”
Indeed, 73,000 blogs is a significant number to take down in one swoop, regardless of what some users of the site may or may not have been doing. Time will tell if it was indeed a copyright complaint that took down the service but the signs are certainly there. Not so long ago the conclusion that this type of action could be taken on copyright grounds would have been dismissed out of hand, but the current atmosphere seems to be changing.
I know to hell with the Constitution..
Many fear this is only the beginning. As with all lies, you start with something true, something with which everyone can agree, and then move on to the true agenda.
There is no question in my mind that if Obama and company thought they could shut down Drudge, FR, and Fox News, they would do it today.
From what I hear, Drudge is banned in government offices. FR has been labeled a 'hate-site' and the list goes on. If I worked for the government, I would never visit anything but Huffington or MSNBC while at work. UUUG
This is not a pro-speach, pro-blog, pro-freedom administration.
It is something that needs to be watched very closely.
This 'Change you can believe in', crap, is scaring everyone. It is obvious that they want to control the internet. They want to control opinion. They want to control what information you do or do not have access to. Obama said so in so many words.
Uh, let me be Uh, clear, Uh, too much, Uh, information, Uh, is, Uh, confusing people.
We gotta watch out.
That doesn’t make sense. Why self-terminate your whole business by removing your domain name rather than take down the blogs themselves? You can stop serving all the blogs and still let your customers get to their data so they can move the information when needed.
Wow, we are just like China. Without the international backbone.
Do you really think Youtube would do the same if Al Qaeda videos were posted? No, they would remove the videos in question.
This is only done from the government. Nice try, though.
Link?
Blogetery did not own the host site, it was owned by BurstNET. They were the ones who decided to pull the plug on all of Blogetery after having been contacted by the FBI.
You can find more info here:
Thanks. Hope that’s all that it is.
You just made my point.
You go after the sites that are doing it, You don't shut down everybody.
This is the exact same argument the left has used with the 2nd amendment.
“Criminals use guns, so we have to take guns away from everybody to stop the criminals.”
Punishing the innocent for the actions of the guilty doesn't work for me.
You probably need to take that up with BurstNET. Don’t disagree with your point, BTW.
Well if that were so, they could just get a court order that would provide a list of names and IPs, and serve that order to the site owner. All nice and legal, with no fuss.
Maybe the Obama Regime wanted to show they didn’t need no stinking court order to show people what force they can exert.
Have you found the court order that allowed this illegal seizure?
“Have you found the court order that allowed this illegal seizure?”
I haven’t looked but from the earlier posts it appears the ISP shut the site down and not the fed govt.
Everyone has seen what the feds will do, so if they ‘suggest’ something it will create fear. Just like any good totalitarian state.
BurstNET determined that Blogetery violated their Terms of Service and terminated their account. Nothing illegal in that, the government was not involved. The rest of the internet seems to be doing OK though.
>>This story has been going on for days and those who haven’t been paying attention won’t be doing themselves any favors spouting their half-baked opinions.<<
So, is your opinion fully cooked? Is that what you’re saying? What flavors did you use?
tobasco sauce, it goes well with everything
Do you know that for a fact?
I haven’t seen any such report from a source I would believe yet.
I know to hell with the Constitution.
Don't you get it? When we let things get bad enough, tyrants will be able to seize power - and it'll be because we the people enabled them to. This theft-by-internet is just one example.
Here's another: Muslims raise a stink about "xenophobic profiling", but they won't utter a word against their bloodthirsty brethren who drive Americans to xenophobia.
And another: Mexicans who immigrate legally and become Americans complain about "racist bigotry" when Arizonans take measures to protect their state against illegal alien invaders, but they won't utter a word against their former countrymen who're causing the problem.
And another: Blacks in the inner-city ghetto rail against police brutalizing gang-bangers and drug-thugs, but they won't lift a finger to drive the murderers out of their midst.
And another: We men complain about being treated like non-entities in divorce and child-custody suits, yet we're conspicuously silent when our fellows are trampling their marriages and their wives underfoot.
And another: We complain about police being equipped like a military force, yet we won't speak up to condemn the immorality among ourselves which warrants such extreme police power.
If there were no (or very little) internet theft going on, the government couldn't get very far in controlling the internet without it being seen far and wide as overbearing and unnecessary. But when we defend the thieves, we legitimize the tyrants' tyranny!
The Constitution? "This Constitution is written for a moral and religious people. It is inadequate for the governing of any other." - John Adams
"He who will not rule himself will be ruled by another." I'll go a step further and argue that the community/nation who will not rule themselves will be ruled by another.
We - and every group mentioned above - had better start policing ourselves, lest the tyrant-wannabes seize on any and every excuse to increase their power.
Freedom is for those who can govern themselves. The rest will be ruled.
32 posted on Tuesday, July 20, 2010 7:31:43 AM by LearsFool ("Thou shouldst not have been old, till thou hadst been wise.")
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2555722/posts?page=32#32
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