Hosting Provider Steadfast Fights to Keep DMCA Safe Harbor

Chicago-based hosting company Steadfast has asked a California District Court to dismiss the broad copyright complaint filed by adult publisher ALS Scan. The hosting provider denies responsibility for the actions of a client’s users, arguing that it is protected by the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN discounts, offers and coupons

Last year, adult entertainment publisher ALS Scan dragged several third-party Internet services to court.

The company targeted several companies including CDN provider CloudFlare and the Chicago-based hosting company Steadfast, accusing them of copyright infringement because they offered services to pirate sites.

More than a year has passed and both sides have yet to resolve their differences.

ALS Scan recently asked the court for a partial summary judgment, determining that Steadfast contributed to copyright infringement and that it has no safe harbor protection. If this was granted, the hosting provider would be in serious trouble.

The copyright holder argued that Steadfast refused to shut down the servers of the image sharing platform imagebam.com, which was operated by its client Flixya. ALS Scan sees the site as a repeat offender as it was targeted with dozens of DMCA notices, and accuses Steadfast of turning a blind eye to the situation.

In a new filing submitted this month, Steadfast fiercely denies the allegations. The hosting provider indeed leased servers to Flixya for ten years but says it forwarded all notices to its client.

The hosting company could not address individual infringements, other than shutting down the entire site, which would be disproportionate in their view.

“Steadfast had no ability to terminate services to individual users of Imagebam.com other than unilaterally shutting down the entire server which would have violated the law. Imagebam.com was not a pirate site when it was operated by Flixya,” Steadfast informs the court.

“Steadfast was not a direct infringer; Steadfast’s client Flixya was not a direct infringer. The direct infringers of the ALS content were the users of Flixya’s Imagebam.com website. Discovery has shown that many, if not all the infringers of the ALS content, were actually ALS’s own members who posted ALS content with impunity.”

Interestingly, the users who posted pirated images on the site were ALS Scan’s own customers. According to Steadfast, ALS took absolutely no steps to curb these infringements themselves.

Instead, ALS hired an agent, Steve Easton, to track down infringements on external sites and issue takedown requests. Steadfast received several of these as well, but believes it responded appropriately, even though the notices were not DMCA compliant.

“Once Easton sent his legally insufficient notices to Steadfast, Steadfast immediately forwarded the notices to Flixya. In turn, Flixya disabled access to the allegedly infringing works that were hosted on imagebam.com,” the company writes.

While ALS Claims that imagebam.com was a repeat offender, Steadfast sees things differently. They point out that Flixya is a service provider as well, and that they were the ones who had to address the alleged infringements.

It would certainly not be an “appropriate circumstance” to disconnect the servers of an entire website, not in the way Congress intended the DMCA to work, the hosting provider notes.

“An ‘appropriate circumstance’ to terminate a user does not include terminating a user who follows the law. Here, the facts in the record demonstrate that Flixya did not blatantly infringe copyright,” Steadfast writes.

“Rather, the facts show that Flixya complied with the DMCA. Flixya posted the required DMCA information on its imagebam.com website, had users agree to the terms of service, and informed users that his or her account will be terminated.”

The hosting provider wants the case to be thrown out, but ALS Scan clearly disagrees. According to the copyright holder, Steadfast should have terminated the imagebam.com servers.

“Steadfast maintained its own theory that if its own client was an Internet service provider, Steadfast had no burden to terminate services to its client, or indeed take any action, in response to notifications of infringement,” ALS writes.

“The law is that a service provider must stop providing services to whomever it is providing such services as long as such services materially contribute to infringement.”

It is now up to the court to decide whether Steadfast is indeed liable. If the company loses its safe harbor, this will have implications for the broader hosting industry.

It would essentially mean that large hosting companies are responsible for the infringing content that their clients’ users upload or link to, which could get quite messy.

Steadfast’s response is available here (pdf) and ALS Scan’s reply can be found here (pdf).

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN discounts, offers and coupons

Hosting Provider Steadfast Fights to Keep DMCA Safe Harbor

Chicago-based hosting company Steadfast has asked a California District Court to dismiss the broad copyright complaint filed by adult publisher ALS Scan. The hosting provider denies responsibility for the actions of a client’s users, arguing that it is protected by the DMCA’s safe harbor provisions.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN discounts, offers and coupons

Last year, adult entertainment publisher ALS Scan dragged several third-party Internet services to court.

The company targeted several companies including CDN provider CloudFlare and the Chicago-based hosting company Steadfast, accusing them of copyright infringement because they offered services to pirate sites.

More than a year has passed and both sides have yet to resolve their differences.

ALS Scan recently asked the court for a partial summary judgment, determining that Steadfast contributed to copyright infringement and that it has no safe harbor protection. If this was granted, the hosting provider would be in serious trouble.

The copyright holder argued that Steadfast refused to shut down the servers of the image sharing platform imagebam.com, which was operated by its client Flixya. ALS Scan sees the site as a repeat offender as it was targeted with dozens of DMCA notices, and accuses Steadfast of turning a blind eye to the situation.

In a new filing submitted this month, Steadfast fiercely denies the allegations. The hosting provider indeed leased servers to Flixya for ten years but says it forwarded all notices to its client.

The hosting company could not address individual infringements, other than shutting down the entire site, which would be disproportionate in their view.

“Steadfast had no ability to terminate services to individual users of Imagebam.com other than unilaterally shutting down the entire server which would have violated the law. Imagebam.com was not a pirate site when it was operated by Flixya,” Steadfast informs the court.

“Steadfast was not a direct infringer; Steadfast’s client Flixya was not a direct infringer. The direct infringers of the ALS content were the users of Flixya’s Imagebam.com website. Discovery has shown that many, if not all the infringers of the ALS content, were actually ALS’s own members who posted ALS content with impunity.”

Interestingly, the users who posted pirated images on the site were ALS Scan’s own customers. According to Steadfast, ALS took absolutely no steps to curb these infringements themselves.

Instead, ALS hired an agent, Steve Easton, to track down infringements on external sites and issue takedown requests. Steadfast received several of these as well, but believes it responded appropriately, even though the notices were not DMCA compliant.

“Once Easton sent his legally insufficient notices to Steadfast, Steadfast immediately forwarded the notices to Flixya. In turn, Flixya disabled access to the allegedly infringing works that were hosted on imagebam.com,” the company writes.

While ALS Claims that imagebam.com was a repeat offender, Steadfast sees things differently. They point out that Flixya is a service provider as well, and that they were the ones who had to address the alleged infringements.

It would certainly not be an “appropriate circumstance” to disconnect the servers of an entire website, not in the way Congress intended the DMCA to work, the hosting provider notes.

“An ‘appropriate circumstance’ to terminate a user does not include terminating a user who follows the law. Here, the facts in the record demonstrate that Flixya did not blatantly infringe copyright,” Steadfast writes.

“Rather, the facts show that Flixya complied with the DMCA. Flixya posted the required DMCA information on its imagebam.com website, had users agree to the terms of service, and informed users that his or her account will be terminated.”

The hosting provider wants the case to be thrown out, but ALS Scan clearly disagrees. According to the copyright holder, Steadfast should have terminated the imagebam.com servers.

“Steadfast maintained its own theory that if its own client was an Internet service provider, Steadfast had no burden to terminate services to its client, or indeed take any action, in response to notifications of infringement,” ALS writes.

“The law is that a service provider must stop providing services to whomever it is providing such services as long as such services materially contribute to infringement.”

It is now up to the court to decide whether Steadfast is indeed liable. If the company loses its safe harbor, this will have implications for the broader hosting industry.

It would essentially mean that large hosting companies are responsible for the infringing content that their clients’ users upload or link to, which could get quite messy.

Steadfast’s response is available here (pdf) and ALS Scan’s reply can be found here (pdf).

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and more. We also have VPN discounts, offers and coupons

The Woman Who Smashed Codes: Your new winter reading assignment

Review: Bow down to Elizebeth Smith Friedman, the mother of American cryptography.

Enlarge (credit: Cyrus Farivar)

I’ve never read such a gripping book about spies that opens with the hopeful words: “This is a love story.”

Over the course of its hundreds of pages, The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone is damned-near impossible to put down. The book has everything: thrills, chills, kills, love, crypto, and a hopeful sense that a nearly forgotten American genius, Elizebeth Smith Friedman, is finally being given her due.

In the book’s opening pages, Fagone, a journalist now at the San Francisco Chronicle, describes how he came upon a trove of Friedman’s papers in a Virginia library that contained not only technical notes, but “love letters. Letters to her kids written in code. Handwritten diaries. A partial, unpublished autobiography.”

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After “swatting” death in Kansas, 25-year old arrested in Los Angeles

Arrest made after man dies in Kansas “swatting.”

Enlarge / A still from the Wichita Police footage of the shooting. (credit: Wichita Police Department)

The alleged "swatter" behind Thursday's police killing of a Wichita, Kansas, man has been arrested.

Tyler Barriss, a 25-year old from South Los Angeles, was taken into custody Friday night, according to the local ABC News affiliate. (ABC also notes that "Glendale police arrested a 22-year-old man with the same name for making bomb threats to KABC-TV" back in 2015.) NBC News, speaking to unnamed local "sources" in LA, says that Barriss "had been living at a transitional recovery center."

Barriss is alleged to have a called in a lengthy threat to Wichita police on Thursday night after a Call of Duty game in which two teammates got into an altercation over a $1.50 wager. Screenshots posted to various Twitter accounts show the dispute escalating. Shortly thereafter, the Wichita police received a call alleging that someone at that address had killed his father, taken his family hostage, poured gasoline around the home, and was ready to light it on fire. Cops descended on the area and cordoned it off. When 28-year old Andrew Fitch opened the front door of his home to see why all the lights were flashing outside, he was shot and killed.

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Do we need a tech boom for the elderly?

Tech has been for the young, but a new book argues that’s about to change.

Enlarge / What’s he doing? (credit: Hugo Bernard / Flickr)

Joseph Coughlin has been director of the MIT AgeLab ever since he founded it in 1999. In his new book, The Longevity Economy, he contends that old age—much like childhood, adolescence, and gender—is a social construct, and a modern one at that.

Coughlin argues that the invention of this construct is a matter of the changing impact of pathogens. Infectious diseases had been indiscriminately killing people of all ages since populations concentrated in cities during the Neolithic Revolution 10,000 years ago. But once the germ theory of disease took hold in the late 19th century, public health initiatives improved hygiene. When antibiotics were discovered and exploited, humans were able to conquer these killers for the first time.

As modern medicine continued to improve, it was able to combat more and more conditions that had historically killed people before their prime (like cuts and childbirth). The only thing medicine couldn’t cure was age. Now that pathogens' impact is limited, the only people who routinely die are the elderly.

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Windows-API: Die dritte Version von Wine ist fast fertig

Mit dem vierten Release Candidate von Wine 3.0 ist die Entwicklung der neuen Version fast abgeschlossen. Die Entwickler befinden sich im Code Freeze. Mit der bald fertigen Version 3.0 wird Direct3D in der Version 11 auf AMD- und Intel-GPUs standardmäßi…

Mit dem vierten Release Candidate von Wine 3.0 ist die Entwicklung der neuen Version fast abgeschlossen. Die Entwickler befinden sich im Code Freeze. Mit der bald fertigen Version 3.0 wird Direct3D in der Version 11 auf AMD- und Intel-GPUs standardmäßig unterstützt. (Wine, API)

How a Star Trek card game quietly continues, 10 years after its official end

Video: STCCG is now free to play, the Continuing Committee makes new cards, too!

(video link)

Earlier this year, I was back at my childhood home in Southern California, digging through some old boxes. Amidst assorted baseball cards, long-forgotten school projects, sports trophies, and more, I located a small, slender white cardboard box.

The box is unmarked, except for a small sticker in the top left-hand corner with my name on it. But I knew what it was the instant I saw it: my entire collection of Star Trek Customizable Card Game (STCCG), probably a couple hundred cards in total.

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Apple iMac Pro: RAM und SSDs lassen sich mit viel Mühe austauschen

Apples neuer iMac Pro hat durchaus austauschbare Komponenten, wie es von einem Rechner mit einem Pro-Label zu erwarten ist. Allerdings ist der Vorgang recht komplex, da das Design des Rechners einem leichten Zugang entgegensteht. (iMac, Apple)

Apples neuer iMac Pro hat durchaus austauschbare Komponenten, wie es von einem Rechner mit einem Pro-Label zu erwarten ist. Allerdings ist der Vorgang recht komplex, da das Design des Rechners einem leichten Zugang entgegensteht. (iMac, Apple)

Blu-ray, Ultra HD Blu-ray sales stats for the week ending December 16, 2017

The results and analysis for DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray sales for the week ending December 16, 2017 are in. Blu-ray revenue fell compared to the same week last year as this year’s spies were not match for last year’s supervillians. Find out what…



The results and analysis for DVD, Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray sales for the week ending December 16, 2017 are in. Blu-ray revenue fell compared to the same week last year as this year's spies were not match for last year's supervillians. Find out what the hell I'm on about in our weekly DVD,Blu-ray and Ultra HD Blu-ray sales stats and analysis feature.

Open Source: Die Community gewinnt – fast immer

Egal ob im Linux-Kernel, an den Low-Level-Userspace-Teilen, grafischen Oberflächen, Software von und für Unternehmen oder gar Hardware – am Ende setzt sich die Zusammenarbeit in der Community durch, wie das Jahr 2017 gezeigt hat. Von dieser Regel gibt …

Egal ob im Linux-Kernel, an den Low-Level-Userspace-Teilen, grafischen Oberflächen, Software von und für Unternehmen oder gar Hardware - am Ende setzt sich die Zusammenarbeit in der Community durch, wie das Jahr 2017 gezeigt hat. Von dieser Regel gibt es aber auch immer wieder Ausnahmen. Eine Analyse von Sebastian Grüner (Open Source, API)