In this very special episode of The GSpot, Joseph Matheny, James Curcio and Wes Unruh have a roundtable discussion regarding the recent DNS takedown of this site and its network sites. This takedown resulted in our loss of hosting as well. Rather than explain it all here, listen and learn.
It all started with a BoingBoing link…
Reference links for this podcast
BoingBoing’s Link to Alan Moore Documentary:
http://www.boingboing.net/2008/01/31/
alan-moore-documenta.html
Undersea Internet Cables Being Cut:
http://mutans.blogspot.com/2008/02/
connecting-many-undersea-cut-cable-dots.html
Anon Vs Co$: http://www.forum.exscn.net/showthread.php?t=3867
PROJECT CHANOLOGY/IRL PROTEST PAGE: http://www.encyclopediadramatica.com/
Project_Chanology_iRL_Raids_Latest_News
Song at end: Hellhound on My Trail by Robert Johnson
Add’l music is by Nate sampsel, johan ess, (from a piece from the Fallen Nation audiobook), and mkII
Link to emails with our rebuttals
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m really sorry about this causing trouble for you guys, if ever you guys need me to undo any interaction I have with your servers please let me know…
-^9
I think this was an honest mistake on Shadowsnake’s part… I couldn’t find a contact link directly on the Altertube page either. You can find it on the blog or gspot page, sure, but if you click the “Store” page first you’ll find a ‘customer service’ link that appears to be part of the Alterati site. I could see why someone would get confused if they didn’t know what Cafe Press was.
I might buy that Klint, except they went to the effort to suss out our DNS provider, which is FAR from easy.Not as easy as clicking on Blog (left to right, comes before Store).
Phase II: don’t sweat it.
Unlike plenty of our users, you were using AlterTube for what it was intended for: helping to get underground, indie, or lesser-known-but-cool video to new audiences.
The fact of the matter is that Shadowsnake doesn’t recognize the fact that the BoingBoing altertube plug of their video brought them a lot of exposure, and even if they (and we) weren’t making money off of the views of their film on AlterTube, they could have used that PR to their benefit.
As demonstration of that, google “alan moore documentary.”
However, (like the RIAA), they don’t see things this way, and instead get threatened by it as someone “stealing” something from them and clamp down. The result in both cases is a disenfranchizement of the core audience, and a lot of wasted opportunities. I understand that fear motivated their action (possibly greed too, but that hasn’t been proven). However, that’s no excuse for such an unproportional response. I didn’t even know the video existed until after all of this had gone down.
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