Warez Hosting
- Thread starter Harry
- Start date
ColdSpirit
New member
Warez linking ISNT illegal... illegal is hosting files in the server!
Its like google or any other search engine but with all the links only in one place (usualy forums)
Its like google or any other search engine but with all the links only in one place (usualy forums)
Galaxy-Hosts
New member
What rules are you talking about? As far as I know it is pretty cut and dry, linking to illegal content is illegal.
The unwritten rules of a kiddie host. :thankyou:
Crucial-Ijan
New member
It's not a good business to get into, to say the least.
Agreed, warez and any illegal content causes too many headaches.
In defence of Warez,
From the posts so far it would seem none of you have ever so much as a installed a knock off copy of Doom back in the day! What an upstanding bunch!
Obviously, in the context of hosting you would do well to avoid warez sites at all costs but intellectual property is far from being the black and white issue some here would contend.
What about sites like oldversion.com and driverguide.com that host software that isn't theirs. And what about fansites who almost certainly don't own the copyright to all their photos, and may occasionally link to a 5 minute bootleg on youtube? What about software deemed illegal by the DMCA such as DeCSS?
While, ethically and legally, you should take pro-active action against overt warez sites in other cases I think it's perfectly reasonable to wait for the copyright owners to contact you before taking stuff offline and closing accounts. This seems good enough for youtube & googlevids eh?
On the wider issue of warez I have to say they have helped me in the past. I don't feel bad about learning photoshop & logic on cracked versions, if I hadn't had access to these I may never have got to the position where I could afford to buy them several years down the line!
Also, I have managed to avoid buying several rubbish products over the years because warez gave me an opportunity to try them out in depth first.
Admittedly, most software now comes with a decent demo (even office!) and there's a lot of good free/open software out there so I haven't used warez in years but I still think it has a place where copyright law and crappy DRM preclude fair use.
I understand the legal and financial case for not hosting 'circumvention' software but would any of you have a _moral_ problem with someone hosting say, decss, or similar?
r0g.
From the posts so far it would seem none of you have ever so much as a installed a knock off copy of Doom back in the day! What an upstanding bunch!
Obviously, in the context of hosting you would do well to avoid warez sites at all costs but intellectual property is far from being the black and white issue some here would contend.
What about sites like oldversion.com and driverguide.com that host software that isn't theirs. And what about fansites who almost certainly don't own the copyright to all their photos, and may occasionally link to a 5 minute bootleg on youtube? What about software deemed illegal by the DMCA such as DeCSS?
While, ethically and legally, you should take pro-active action against overt warez sites in other cases I think it's perfectly reasonable to wait for the copyright owners to contact you before taking stuff offline and closing accounts. This seems good enough for youtube & googlevids eh?
On the wider issue of warez I have to say they have helped me in the past. I don't feel bad about learning photoshop & logic on cracked versions, if I hadn't had access to these I may never have got to the position where I could afford to buy them several years down the line!
Also, I have managed to avoid buying several rubbish products over the years because warez gave me an opportunity to try them out in depth first.
Admittedly, most software now comes with a decent demo (even office!) and there's a lot of good free/open software out there so I haven't used warez in years but I still think it has a place where copyright law and crappy DRM preclude fair use.
I understand the legal and financial case for not hosting 'circumvention' software but would any of you have a _moral_ problem with someone hosting say, decss, or similar?
r0g.
Blue
New member
Well bravo for you.
Warez is just okie dokie as long as YOU benefit from it.
Justify it all you like but some of us do take copyright infringement seriously. Some of us are professional enough to know right from wrong and choose not to justify stealing of intellectual property to serve our own needs.
Warez is just okie dokie as long as YOU benefit from it.
Justify it all you like but some of us do take copyright infringement seriously. Some of us are professional enough to know right from wrong and choose not to justify stealing of intellectual property to serve our own needs.
La propriété, c'est le vol!
Yes well, as I say, as a web host you should be taking pro active steps against warez to protect your business and enforce what ever your moral take is on intellectual property. However, technically, I'll wager there isn't a shared hosting provider in the world that is absolutely free of copyright infringing material.
My point is that it's impractical for copyright laws to be observed to the letter and permission obtained for every little thing. There are justifications for making 'mechanical copies' of someone elses work without their direct consent in some circumstances and there always have been; to the extent 'fair use' provisions exist in almost all copyright laws.
Also, I would content that the world AS A WHOLE has benefited more from weak copyright enforcement in the digital world than it's collective developers have suffered, although I accept egalitarianism can be carried too far. Here's a question: do you think the kit we have today would be better/cheaper if we'd had strict DRM for the last 50 years and IBM had been as proprietary about its PC hardware as Apple has been about the Mac?
Actually, when you think about it maybe it would have been. Maybe we'd have had a good open source desktop by the late 80's if everyone hadn't been able to pirate Windows 3 by just write protecting the 1st floppy! ;-)
I'm glad you are clear in your thinking and 'know right from wrong' when it comes to intellectual property, I daresay in most cases any reasonable person (myself included) would agree with you but that still leaves myriad cases, real and theoretical, where there is no general ethical consensus.
Anyway, sorry to rant, we're getting a bit off topic now eh? Modern IP law/ethics is just a field that intrigues (and troubles) me greatly.
Regards,
Roger.
r0g.
Yes well, as I say, as a web host you should be taking pro active steps against warez to protect your business and enforce what ever your moral take is on intellectual property. However, technically, I'll wager there isn't a shared hosting provider in the world that is absolutely free of copyright infringing material.
My point is that it's impractical for copyright laws to be observed to the letter and permission obtained for every little thing. There are justifications for making 'mechanical copies' of someone elses work without their direct consent in some circumstances and there always have been; to the extent 'fair use' provisions exist in almost all copyright laws.
Also, I would content that the world AS A WHOLE has benefited more from weak copyright enforcement in the digital world than it's collective developers have suffered, although I accept egalitarianism can be carried too far. Here's a question: do you think the kit we have today would be better/cheaper if we'd had strict DRM for the last 50 years and IBM had been as proprietary about its PC hardware as Apple has been about the Mac?
Actually, when you think about it maybe it would have been. Maybe we'd have had a good open source desktop by the late 80's if everyone hadn't been able to pirate Windows 3 by just write protecting the 1st floppy! ;-)
I'm glad you are clear in your thinking and 'know right from wrong' when it comes to intellectual property, I daresay in most cases any reasonable person (myself included) would agree with you but that still leaves myriad cases, real and theoretical, where there is no general ethical consensus.
Anyway, sorry to rant, we're getting a bit off topic now eh? Modern IP law/ethics is just a field that intrigues (and troubles) me greatly.
Regards,
Roger.
r0g.
Blue
New member
A host can be proactive in copyright cases but more importantly is how reactive a host is when confronted with a copyright case.
Companies make money from software giving them the resources to improve the software or create new software.
Open source is a wonderful thing but at the end of the day it is generally inconsistant and often inadequate.
If companies choose not to copyright their product more power to them. But we should protect the legal and moral ethics that go with the legal copyright. Otherwise there would be no incentive to move forward.
I'm not suggesting going after people in a Nazi sort of fashion like the RIAA, just due diligence.
Companies make money from software giving them the resources to improve the software or create new software.
Open source is a wonderful thing but at the end of the day it is generally inconsistant and often inadequate.
If companies choose not to copyright their product more power to them. But we should protect the legal and moral ethics that go with the legal copyright. Otherwise there would be no incentive to move forward.
I'm not suggesting going after people in a Nazi sort of fashion like the RIAA, just due diligence.
r0ger, please explain to me how intellectual property is not so "black & white".
Seems pretty black and white to me. 1. if you don't own it, you obtain permission. 2. If a license costs money, and you got one free from any other source than a officially licensed source permitted to grant free licensing, it's illegal. 3. If you allow people to host these warez or links to them, you are an accomplice to violation of federal copyright laws, that are for the majority international, through international treaties.
Just because r0ger, or anyone else for that matter, has gained benefit from it, does not create a grey area. It creates a bunch of thieves.
Seems pretty black and white to me. 1. if you don't own it, you obtain permission. 2. If a license costs money, and you got one free from any other source than a officially licensed source permitted to grant free licensing, it's illegal. 3. If you allow people to host these warez or links to them, you are an accomplice to violation of federal copyright laws, that are for the majority international, through international treaties.
Just because r0ger, or anyone else for that matter, has gained benefit from it, does not create a grey area. It creates a bunch of thieves.
HostVaultHostin
New member
It seems to me that the warez scene is a very split subject everywhere, but as far as software goes, it should not be hard to find an open source alternative for ANY case. With things like the sourceforge and freshmeat communities, there is no reason to pirate software. Other than that, if you still want to do it..... Find a dedicated server in a country where it's 100% legal.
I would really love to see the list.. or name at least 1 country where software piracy (or any type of intellectual piracy) is legal.
dbihosting
New member
I'd stay away from anyone that lets this trash on their network. It degards the network, attracts unnessary attention and attacks.
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