Backed up your blog lately? 73,000 blogs shut down without warning by US...

[Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter]

Blogetery.com was shut down by it's host without warning and the 73,000 blogs it was hosting were instantly gone.

The host was shut down by US authorities because some of the blogs were giving away copyrighted materials.

While Blogetery is trying to get their data back, their hosting company has said they cannot release ANY of the data to any of their sites.

Keep in mind the government had no problem with the majority Blogerty sites, just a few of the sites on the Blogetery system.

Details:

U.S. Authorities Shut Down Wordpress Host With 73,000 Blogs | TorrentFreak

I'm interested in your thoughts....

[Leslie B]

Originally Posted by Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter

Also, I wonder what happens if your domain name is also registered with your hosting company.

That's one of the reasons why I would never buy my domain name from the same place as I have my hosting.

Just another reason why having backups of your sites are important, you never know what could happen. And it only takes you maybe 5 minutes per site.

Leslie

[Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter]

Is there a good auto-backup that runs in browser or something for WordPress? I hadn't thought about it before, but as far as I know I have to manually back up my WordPress data in order to get it off the server.

[Leslie B]

I use the wp-db-backup plugin. You can set it so that it automatically sends you a backup of your database to your email for example. Besides the database that I get every week, I will also get a copy of my wp-content folder. I download that through my file manager or via an ftp program

Leslie

[JayXtreme]

OUCH...

That's gotta hurt right now. I wonder who is in an office over at blogetery somewhere dealing with this, I'd like to offer that guy a drink right now... he's gonna need it.

Ouch, just ouch.

[mainstreetcm]

Originally Posted by JayXtreme

OUCH...

That's gotta hurt right now. I wonder who is in an office over at blogetery somewhere dealing with this, I'd like to offer that guy a drink right now... he's gonna need it.

Ouch, just ouch.

He's going to need a really big drink. Are hosting companies even liable for lost data? That is one part of the internet world I am definitely not familiar with, but you would think a hosting company would cover themselves in their TOS for an event like this.

And, this just goes to show, don't ever take a "free" domain name. Spend the whopping $10 and just register elsewhere. It's just ten dollars. It's interesting they went after the hosting provider of the sites, instead of the sites themselves. That could definitely put a big dent in these sites popping up if hosting providers won't allow them onboard because of a shutdown.

[Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter]

Originally Posted by mainstreetcm

And, this just goes to show, don't ever take a "free" domain name. Spend the whopping $10 and just register elsewhere. It's just ten dollars.

It made the news because 73,000 blogs were instantly affected, but it is important to note that ANYONE hosting with this company lost their site and data. Even people who didn't have a "free" hosting account through their blog.

Think about it this way: If Hostgator or Bluehost got shut down by the government this afternoon, would you be in crisis mode? Yeah, nobody's gonna write an article about how you lost your site, but to you it doesn't matter whether it's one person or 1 million. Your site is still gone.

[sbucciarel]

Wow ... that's incredible. On the one hand, I'm glad that a host hosting torrent sites got shut down. On the other hand, why do the innocent have to suffer? Geeesh. Seems like you can't win.

[Regina Meyers]

Painful!

Most certainly brings backing up the blogs to the forefront.

[Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter]

I have a business idea for one of your whiz kid programmers out there.

1. Get an amazon S3 account.
2. Create an simple interface to register users.
3. Create a browser based interface to log-in to people's WordPress, AWeber, etc. and autobackup all the data on a daily basis to the cloud.
4. ???????
5. PROFIT

[Rezbi]

Originally Posted by Regina Meyers

Painful!

Most certainly brings backing up the blogs to the forefront.

That's an understatement.

[mainstreetcm]

Originally Posted by Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter

It made the news because 73,000 blogs were instantly affected, but it is important to note that ANYONE hosting with this company lost their site and data. Even people who didn't have a "free" hosting account through their blog.

Think about it this way: If Hostgator or Bluehost got shut down by the government this afternoon, would you be in crisis mode? Yeah, nobody's gonna write an article about how you lost your site, but to you it doesn't matter whether it's one person or 1 million. Your site is still gone.

If Hostgator went down today and I owned the domain name instead of taking one of those "free with hosting purchase" domain names couldn't I just find a new host, import my backed up blog and change the name servers in my namecheap account with 20 minutes of finding out?

So, no I wouldn't be in crisis mode. Would I be in crisis mode if I couldn't move my domain name from one host's DNS to the next? Yeah probably. Might be a little peeved as well if I didn't back up my files, but I always do. Definitely sucks for those that didn't though.

[Jesus Perez]

Originally Posted by Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter

I have a business idea for one of your whiz kid programmers out there.

1. Get an amazon S3 account.
2. Create an simple interface to register users.
3. Create a browser based interface to log-in to people's WordPress, AWeber, etc. and autobackup all the data on a daily basis to the cloud.
4. ???????
5. PROFIT

Kevin, there's a free plugin called BackWPUp that backs up all of wordpress, files, database and even files OUTSIDE of wordpress to Amazon S3.

I'm using it and loving it.

http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/backwpup/

[Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter]

Originally Posted by mainstreetcm

If Hostgator went down today and I owned the domain name instead of taking one of those "free with hosting purchase" domain names couldn't I just find a new host, import my backed up blog and change the name servers in my namecheap account with 20 minutes of finding out?

So, no I wouldn't be in crisis mode. Would I be in crisis mode if I couldn't move my domain name from one host's DNS to the next? Yeah probably. Might be a little peeved as well if I didn't back up my files, but I always do. Definitely sucks for those that didn't though.

I wasn't directing that "you" at you particularly, just giving people in general the idea that this could be a big deal. Back in early 2000's there were a number of host companies that went belly up as well and when they shut the lights off there wasn't anyone there to get your data for you.

But you're correct: Stay away from getting your hosting and domain name at the same place.

[KenThompson]

It always seems that when new policies are put into effect, especially
when they're designed to fight something like infringement, that the
initial efforts are a bit overkill.

Shoot first... maybe or maybe not ask questions, later.

So, hopefully two things will happen. The FTC will become more sensitive
and aware of collateral damage such as hurting legitimate businesses that just
happened to be hosted at the wrong place. Secondly, events like this will
compel other hosting companies to become more proactive by refusing service
to sites that engage in illegal activities.

Perhaps the torrents were against the specific TOS of that hosting provider,
but they didn't pay attention or really care.


Ken

[mainstreetcm]

Originally Posted by Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter

I wasn't directing that "you" at you particularly, just giving people in general the idea that this could be a big deal. Back in early 2000's there were a number of host companies that went belly up as well and when they shut the lights off there wasn't anyone there to get your data for you.

But you're correct: Stay away from getting your hosting and domain name at the same place.

lol I know you weren't, just wanted to clarify what I was trying to say. Your right this definitely IS a big deal, especially for those of us who follow the battle between the torrent sites and just about everyone. This could prove to be a serious blow to the pirates if hosting providers start rushing to drop torrent sites because they can be shut down for providing services to them.

It also really sucks for those who have been affected. I would be a pretty pissed off camper if I hadn't taken the proper precautions. Losing all my data not too long ago on a hard drive was proof enough for me that I need to back up everything.

[mainstreetcm]

Originally Posted by KenThompson

It always seems that when new policies are put into effect, especially
when they're designed to fight something like infringement, that the
initial efforts are a bit overkill.

Shoot first... maybe or maybe not ask questions, later.

So, hopefully two things will happen. The FTC will become more sensitive
and aware of collateral damage such as hurting legitimate businesses that just
happened to be hosted at the wrong place. Secondly, events like this will
compel other hosting companies to become more proactive by refusing service
to sites that engage in illegal activities.

Perhaps the torrents were against the specific TOS of that hosting provider,
but they didn't pay attention or really care.


Ken

I'm not quite sure the FTC is concerned about collateral damage in this scenario. Especially because if you are a web hosting company you are going to see that you will LOSE EVERYTHING if you are caught hosting a torrent site. News like this could scare the hosting providers from providing service to the "illegal" sites and provide a serious blow to those who run (and profit) from running those sites.

[Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter]

Originally Posted by mainstreetcm

I'm not quite sure the FTC is concerned about collateral damage in this scenario. Especially because if you are a web hosting company you are going to see that you will LOSE EVERYTHING if you are caught hosting a torrent site. News like this could scare the hosting providers from providing service to the "illegal" sites and provide a serious blow to those who run (and profit) from running those sites.

If you look at how the government has treated RIAA lawsuits, you may be exactly right (though there may be a backlash starting now.)

Basically anyone who shared music online was sued for such a huge amount it would impoverish any file sharer. The RIAA's strategy was to smash small offenders so hard it would strike fear into anyone considering sharing a music file.

Until the last month or so the courts have upheld their claims (I believe, someone correct me if I am wrong.)

Copyright is such a fluid issue right now it will be interesting to see what will happen.

[Joseph Ratliff]

Originally Posted by BlueSquares

Kevin, there's a free plugin called BackWPUp that backs up all of wordpress, files, database and even files OUTSIDE of wordpress to Amazon S3.

I'm using it and loving it.

WordPress › BackWPup WordPress Plugins

Sheesh (on this whole situation).

Installed, used. Thanks for the tip BlueSquares.

[bay37]

Ahhh so that's where my 20+ blogs went...

Sucks.

[kindsvater]

Something is not being fully reported.

The US government cannot simply order websites shutdown.

[Rezbi]

Originally Posted by kindsvater

Something is not being fully reported.

The US government cannot simply order websites shutdown.

The US government can do ANYTHING they like.

Didn't you know?

[Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter]

Originally Posted by kindsvater

Something is not being fully reported.

The US government cannot simply order websites shutdown.

Actually it is reported.

The hosting company was hosting a number of torrent sites where copyrighted materials were being shared freely. It is against the law to do so.

But to me it's like finding out one apartment in a building is selling drugs so you kick everyone out and padlock the building.

[evollusion]

Must... resist... shameless... plug... Whew. just managed to do it.

Also you should look at this scenario. If you use one of those online backup sites such as that one named after that Han Solo was frozen with. Don't get me wrong, they are great (I use one myself) but they are no replacement for a beautiful 500gig - 1 TB that you have in your home.

I actually keep a push-button backup hard drive at my home, and back up to an online service as well.

My theory behind it is this. Let's just say said uber-large-online-backup company happens to have some bad guy's backup on their huge storage network and that your data just happens to reside on the same hard drive. FBI/NSA swoops in and confiscates it. Guess what, you aren't getting your data back and if you don't have a backup on another device...

I'll just let it hang there.

[Tomos Wyn]

Have I backed up my blog or website recently? No

Will I? Yes, I guess I'll either store my backups locally or store them on the web using Amazon or Dropbox.

And as Leslie B said, I'd never buy my domain & hosting from the same place, too much risk involved in my opinion.

[Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter]

Originally Posted by evollusion

My theory behind it is this. Let's just say said uber-large-online-backup company happens to have some bad guy's backup on their huge storage network and that your data just happens to reside on the same hard drive. FBI/NSA swoops in and confiscates it. Guess what, you aren't getting your data back and if you don't have a backup on another device...

I'll just let it hang there.

Let me preface this by saying anything can happen.

But I do think there is a major difference and I think it would not be lost even on our technically slow government...

A hosting company has open contact with the content of a site. They know what content is on their servers.

While I don't know about all remote back-up companies, but Mozy, the one I use, encrypts the data with my encryption key and no one at Mozy can access my data even if they want to.

But I also back up locally to an external. Just not as often. Cause it's a pain.

[mainstreetcm]

Ok so I re-read this article and I think we are getting something wrong here.

In the OP you said

Keep in mind the government had no problem with the Blogerty sites, just other sites also hosted on the same servers.

But in the article they indicate that "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."

The article says nothing about torrent sites being hosted and this blogger platform was just a "casualty." They go onto say that "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."

Sounds like to me the Government told the host to pull THIS particular website because of the content it had on it.

[Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter]

Originally Posted by mainstreetcm

Ok so I re-read this article and I think we are getting something wrong here.

Wow. In my defense I had been writing all day and my mind was obviously muddled. I just re-read and it was more clear to me this time.

Thanks for saying "we" and not pointing and laughing.

I will go back and edit my initial post.

Everything will be kittens and bunnies soon.

[mainstreetcm]

Originally Posted by Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter

Thanks for saying "we" and not pointing and laughing.

Hey, I'm just as guilty for zipping through this article and then rushing to comment. Unfortunately I can't edit my posts lol.

I would say that this still provides some value, giving people a REASON to be backing up their files. My apologies for not reading the article properly before posting

[Crew Chief]

Originally Posted by kindsvater

Something is not being fully reported.

The US government cannot simply order websites shutdown.

There is something else going on and apparently [shrugging head while typing] blogetery doesn't have a clue.

This is a comment from a Bursnet Rep on the 14th about the blogetery account...

BurstNET_CSM BurstNET_CSM
View Beta Profile
Junior Guru

We notified him when we terminated it, and we refunded him his money to his account, becasue 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 concern.

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.

As far as his request to speak with the law enforcement officials, he sent it last night at 7PM, after Customer service was closed. We are looking into his request with the necessary persons.

This is the last post we will make on this subject.

And the blogetery response was...

I didn't do anything illegal, so I'm not worrying about this. But you concern should be your customers in the 1st place, then some law enforcement officials.

So yes, there is a lot more going on than meets they eye or what was stated by Torrentfreak.

I hope the owner(s) of blogetery is smart enough to shut his mouth, go get an attorney and let them do his talking. He's stating he doesn't know what the heck is going on. But, the thing is, Federal authorities don't typically take action unless they can prove a case.

Consequently, the blogetery folks have got some MAJOR issues. Oh, and if you have a site/blog with them, you need to know that blogetery stated that they didn't backup anything.

The takeaway from this mess is; have a PLAN B at all times and be ready to implement it at the drop of a dime!

Never rely on ANYONE to do your backups. If you can't access your backups at any time you choose, you don't have any backups.

Giles, the Crew Chief

[mainstreetcm]

Originally Posted by Crew Chief

Never rely on ANYONE to do your backups. If you can't access your backups at any time you choose, you don't have any backups.

Well said and really is crucial for something as simple as a hard drive failure.

[Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter]

Originally Posted by mainstreetcm

Hey, I'm just as guilty for zipping through this article and then rushing to comment. Unfortunately I can't edit my posts lol.

I would say that this still provides some value, giving people a REASON to be backing up their files. My apologies for not reading the article properly before posting

Yeah but it's always good for me to start a thread, get everyone really worked up and then show I was close to 100% wrong. Does wonders for my credibility.

It does apply to people who are using WordPress.com or Blogger.com or one of the other blog hosts out there--they can have their blog removed instantly.

It's just not as bad as I had initially thought.

I need to blame this on my VA and ghost writer. Yeah, that's it. My ghost writer logged into my account--after being specifically told not to do so--and started this thread in my name. As soon as I discovered it I immediately saw how wrong the ghosted post was and immediately fired the ghost writer and issued the appropriate retraction.

But I take full responsibility. I should have checked my ghost writer's credentials more thoroughly. My crime is being too trusting.

[FrankBowman]

So this is why some people have offshore hosting...........

[Crew Chief]

Originally Posted by FrankBowman

So this is why some people have offshore hosting...........

So what happens in the event of a Tsunami...

Giles, the Crew Chief

[Brad Gosse]

Got my own servers that back up every 24 hrs

No worries here.

[quickregister]

That seems like selective enforcement to me. There is tons of copyrighted material on youtube, facebook etc and they give these site the chance to take it down before they nuke the whole company.

[FrankBowman]

Bottom line is, you can't fight the Feds.........

[Paul Myers]

Brian,

Something is not being fully reported.

Yeah. The reason the government ordered the site taken down. Which branch is behind the investigation. Whether the whole thing was the target, or just specific blogs, which may not yet have been determined.

Pretty much nothing is being reported except, "We took it down because we had to in order to comply with legally authorized demands."

The fact that it was a free blogging platform means nothing. The kind of content that prompted the action is what I'd like to know. Offhand, I can think of several sorts of things that would prompt an immediate and severe response. The obvious one is child porn. Less likely are terrorist groups using the site to communicate (not a DMCA issue, so the site owner might not have received any complaints), or rampant piracy or phishing they might believe the owner was involved in.

We don't know which of those it is, or if it's something else entirely. We can guess that the guy hosting the blogs isn't the direct target, since they refunded him and left his other servers up. Even that's a guess, though.


Paul

[NicheMayhem]

Wow. To me it seems the whole idea of sending out a serious message to those involved in these types of sites is most definitely complicated beyond our understanding. If blogetery was an easy to pluck target, it is possible that it just sucks for them to not have been any bigger or smaller. They were the porridge that was "just right" for the three big bad bears to come find them...and then spank their asses publicly.

Hopefully the message goes out crystal clear to others who are all up in the sharing links and torrents scene, regardless of what the details are here.

Somebody is probably going to be paying out some serious dough behind the scenes of this for a looooong time to come.

[sbucciarel]

Originally Posted by quickregister

That seems like selective enforcement to me. There is tons of copyrighted material on youtube, facebook etc and they give these site the chance to take it down before they nuke the whole company.

It is sort of selective enforcement. It has to be with 'Operation In Our Sites' and I think this is just the beginning of sites being shut down that involve movie and music piracy specifically. As for the blog site, they "had a history of abuse" and were deliberately shut down.

"Operation In Our Sites" targets Internet movie pirates

[IMChick]

This is the precise scenario that business interruption insurance is purchased to insure against in the B&M world. When a catastrophic event shuts or interrupts the business, the business can prove income through past records, and is compensated for the loss through this type of insurance.

Best advice in the thread is to:

1. back up WP blogs using WordPress › BackWPup WordPress Plugins

2. keep domain purchase and domain hosting separate.

[Crew Chief]

Originally Posted by sbucciarel

It is sort of selective enforcement. It has to be with 'Operation In Our Sites' and I think this is just the beginning of sites being shut down that involve movie and music piracy specifically. As for the blog site, they "had a history of abuse" and were deliberately shut down.

"Operation In Our Sites" targets Internet movie pirates

Just the beginning may be a monumental understatement.

Look who's involved?

• Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
• U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York (SDNY)
• ICE's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI)
• Senior representatives from major movie studios
• Entertainment unions
• Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
• National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center
• Directors Guild of America
• International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE

Here's my thinking, if you have a site or sites that deal in any of the affiliate programs that offers movie and music downloads and free PC TV, I'd probably go into shutdown mode yesterday!

This is serious!

Oh, and did you catch the paradox in the Operation Title?

Giles, the Crew Chief

[TristanPerry]

Reminds me of the time when the FBI found a server which contained illegal content, and so they got a warrant to enter the datacentre storing the server, but they shut-down the entire datacentre (thus shutting off 1,000s of servers and potentially millions of websites..) for a couple of hours whilst they removed this 1 server...

Have never understood why they didn't just take the 1 server and leave everything else be.

Anywhoo, this is definitely a good reminder that you should keep backups daily (even if your host create daily offsite backups too)

You can never have too many backups. But you can definitely have too few backups

[Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter]

Originally Posted by TristanPerry

Reminds me of the time when the FBI found a server which contained illegal content, and so they got a warrant to enter the datacentre storing the server, but they shut-down the entire datacentre (thus shutting off 1,000s of servers and potentially millions of websites..) for a couple of hours whilst they removed this 1 server...

Have never understood why they didn't just take the 1 server and leave everything else be.

Anywhoo, this is definitely a good reminder that you should keep backups daily (even if your host create daily offsite backups too)

You can never have too many backups. But you can definitely have too few backups

That's pretty much what I read--a few months back.

At the time I chocked it up to the general technical ignorance of law enforcement. I don't think we've gotten to a place where most agencies are up to speed on how to create a search warrant for digital info to a judge and most judges are probably not technically savvy enough to understand what is an appropriate scope for a search and what is not.

[alsmith1]

I guess backing up my site should be my #1 priority, that would be terrible especially if you had a series of sites.

[Mike Grant]

The US authorities did not shut them down. The host shut them down, because the authorities told them of some things they had on the server.

[Kay King]

Could be the equivalent of an offline raid - they take everything - all files - all computers. The way it was done sounds security related - no warning.

If that's the mindset the authorities would "shut it all down and we'll sort it out later". Wonder if we'll ever know what the real story was - cause it's not there yet.

kay

[sbucciarel]

Originally Posted by mgtarheels

The US authorities did not shut them down. The host shut them down, because the authorities told them of some things they had on the server.

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”.

[Kay King]

Gives a whole new meaning to collateral damage, doesn't it?

[FrankBowman]

Originally Posted by Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter

At the time I chocked it up to the general technical ignorance of law enforcement. I don't think we've gotten to a place where most agencies are up to speed on how to create a search warrant for digital info to a judge and most judges are probably not technically savvy enough to understand what is an appropriate scope for a search and what is not.

I don't believe that for a second. The Feds have access to technology we don't even know exists. It's just part of their MO. Come in like bullies and disrupt everybody. They don't give a hang about who they hurt or how much they hurt. Collateral damage is part of their SOP ...........in my opinion of course.

BTW, am I still allowed an opinion or does this also fall under BlueFart?