MySpace and GoDaddy Shut Down Security Site 344
Several readers wrote in with a CNET report that raises novel free-speech questions. MySpace asked GoDaddy to pull the plug on Seclists.org, a site run by Fyodor Vaskovich, the father of nmap. The site hosts a quarter million pages of mailing-list archives and the like. MySpace did not obtain a court order or, apparently, compose a DMCA takedown notice: it simply asked GoDaddy to remove a site that happened to archive a list of thousands of MySpace usernames and passwords, and GoDaddy complied. Fyodor says the takedown happened without prior notice. The site was unavailable for about seven hours until he found out what was happening and removed the offending posting. The CNET article concludes: "When asked if GoDaddy would remove the registration for a news site like CNET News.com, if a reader posted illegal information in a discussion forum and editors could not be immediately reached over a holiday, Jones replied: 'I don't know... It's a case-by-case basis.'"
GoDaddy probably complied... (Score:5, Interesting)
And, by the way, I hope GoDaddy's reading this. I'm moving my domains away from you because of your lackadaisical approach to our constitutional rights.
So a TLD registrar can shut down queries if he (Score:1, Interesting)
It's time for some contract review...
How timely (Score:4, Interesting)
Big surprise. (Score:5, Interesting)
Providers, by and large, will cave to any request from a big company...Hell there was an article about it here a few days ago, that linked the BoF Experiment [www.bof.nl] where they posted a public domain work on 10 different places, and then sent DMCA takedown notices to all 10 places, and had 7 remove it immediately even though it was clearly marked as public domain.
Face it; a hosting site that will stick up for it's customers against a significant threat from a big company is hard as hell to find, and sure as hell GoDaddy isn't going to do it for 10 bucks a month.
Why where the passwords posted (Score:2, Interesting)
Why where these posted on the site? Was this part of disclosure regarding a security issue that MySpace wasn't willing to address?
Re:Case-by-case basis... (Score:4, Interesting)
The other side is a very slippery slope as well (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Myspace is the new AOL (Score:5, Interesting)
I have a few domains registered with godaddy at the moment. In about an hour, they no longer will be, with a letter to their CEO (US Mail) saying why.
GoDaddy is now known as GoAwayDaddy in my book.
Unconscionable (Score:5, Interesting)
2. 142: The number of domains I have registered with GoDaddy.
3. $1500: Roughly the annual amount I pay for my domains to renew them each year.
4. 48: The number of hours I have allotted myself this weekend to transfer each and every one of them AWAY from GoDaddy to someplace like NameCheap.com or DomainMonitor. Haven't decided yet.
5. True: Boolean value for whether or not I am pissed-off.
6. Very Much: The level of item 5, above's, value.
Probably reasonable (Score:3, Interesting)
Was looking for a registrar.... (Score:3, Interesting)
HERE IS A LINK FROM GOOGLE : FULL LIST (Score:5, Interesting)
now please shut down google?
oh I see, they are corporate and fydor is the little guy, I forgot!!!
Re:Big surprise. (Score:2, Interesting)
But the BoF Experiment is based on European law (after a quick read, maybe I'm wrong) and that's flawed because the DMCA is different.
The DMCA assumes guilt and you're afforded the safe harbor if you immediately remove the potentially offending content pending review.
After you take down the content, THEN everyone debates whether or not it's really offending.
Not cool, but it's the law and there's no way a company's going to take that risk.
Re:Overkill is an understatement (Score:2, Interesting)
That's true. Depending on how long it was there, it may have been crawled by Google and could be included in their next search index. If that happens, will Google be taken down for several hours as a result of such an email from MySpace? My guess is, probably not...
Re:Overkill is an understatement (Score:3, Interesting)
bulletin i just posted to myspace:
Re:Overkill (Score:3, Interesting)
Wow, you interpretted that quote completely different from most of us. (I assume) that most of us interpretted it as "We reserve the right to screw our customers, as long as screwing that particular customer is the most convenient course of action for us"
Re:How timely (Score:3, Interesting)
While this means you should be careful on the terms and conditions and check their track records (so far I've used gandi before and they seem ok, I don't know much about joker), it means companies in other countries will have to work a bit harder to take down your domain.
Of course, if you use Gandi and do something that annoyed the French Gov, they might be able to force Gandi to pull your domain.
Re:Overkill is an understatement (Score:5, Interesting)
Then again, i called mastercard and told them i didn't authorize that charge, so they didn't get that $200 from me.
Re:Question is... (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't think sending a letter to Fyodor was the answer. They had 250,000 compromised accounts. It wasn't the time to fire off a letter and sit and wait to see what happens. If you had a company and 250,000 accounts were compromised, I hope you would have been as assertive. It's not just important for your customers, it's important for your business as a whole.
Remember, Fyodor had done nothing wrong.
I don't recall anyone saying Fyodor did anything wrong. All I remember is a lot of people saying it was wrong to try and block propagation of private customer information. Which is why I brought up SS#, credit card information, etc. It's private information that isn't supposed to be on public display. It's not an issue with people until it's their information that on public display.
Re:Question is... (Score:3, Interesting)
If someone sold you a stereo, then broke into your house and took it back, you'd call them a criminal. You wouldn't say they "did the right thing to the point", so besides the fact that GoDaddy sold virtual property, then broke into your virtual house and stole virtual property, how is this so different, it requires a completely different attitude? It's not up to me. It's not up to you either. It's up to a court of law so that rational and impartial minds find justice. Godaddy decided they were the judge and jury, and decided that they still are. I will never do business with Godaddy and I'd never do business with such a treacherous antiamerican hatemonger like yourself either.
Or to put it a way your simple little mind might grasp: My friend got his car reposessed so he couldn't get to work, so he lost his job, so he couldn't pay his rent, so he got kicked out of his house all because his bank decided that regular automatic payment that had been going on for every month for a full year suddenly looked very suspicious, and rather than pay it, or contact anyone, they decided it must be fraudulent and locked his account.
I think that Myspace could've fixed their bug, and turned their site off if Myspace had the bug. Asking Godaddy as they did was stupid and idiotic, but Godaddy actually doing it was downright criminal.
You might trust Godaddy with your house, your car, your job, and your family, but I don't.
I hope Fyodor sues Godaddy for all they're worth.
Re:Case-by-case basis... (Score:5, Interesting)
PGA www.randomlogic.com
GoDaddy Response (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:GoDaddy Response (Score:4, Interesting)
2. That list of MySpace users is available at several full-disclosure lists. Taking down SecLists.org doesn't change anything.
3. Your customer has e-mail logs to prove his side of the story. Do you?
Re:Case-by-case basis... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:GoDaddy Response (Score:3, Interesting)
in the name of child-abuse let us just simply suspend all rights and freedoms.
unless/until you get a properly legal document requesting a shutdown, JUST SAY NO.
and exactly what did you do to confirm the identity of whoever made the request?
how do you avoid denial-of-service attacks by the people making a take-down request
actually being the same ones who posted inappropriate things at a site?
eeeeesh.
there is no justifcation. period.
my own eight domains at godaddy will be transfered soon.
GoDaddy's Response (Score:2, Interesting)
I am Ben Butler, the Director of Network Abuse at Go Daddy and I want to personally address your posts regarding SecLists.org.
As we have said to our customers - Go Daddy is committed to keeping the Internet a safe place. If there is material online that is jeopardizing Internet safety, we will take necessary action.
In this case, Go Daddy attempted to contact the customer with regard to a large list of MySpace user names and passwords which appeared on his Web site. The registrant was not available at the time.
In order to protect users of MySpace from the risk of having private data revealed, we removed the site until we could make contact with our customer. Once we were able to discuss the issue with the registrant, he assured us he would remove the offending material and we re-enabled his site while he was on the phone. The site was back up within one hour.
In each case like this, my department follows a set of operating procedures evaluating whether to remove hosting content or to redirect domain names. The decision is carefully made on a case-by-case basis. Most times, the site is left as is.
An important issue I would ask you to consider is one that is a top priority for us at Go Daddy - child exploitation or even the potential for it.
I don't know of any parent who wouldn't want their child's username and password protected.
Ben Butler
Director of Network Abuse
The Go Daddy Group, Inc
Re:GoDaddy and the DMCA... (Score:2, Interesting)
If you didn't take it down or didn't respond that you disagree with copyright status in a reasonable amount of time, then the provider would have to take you down or become liable themselves. "Reasonable" is not measured in hours.
I would not blame the DMCA in your situation.
Darin
You and Bob Parsons *work for me*, not MySpace (Score:3, Interesting)
Maybe its MySpace that are in the wrong? (Score:2, Interesting)
MySpace would than have contacted their customers and let them change their passwords.
Once the passwords were published, they have to be changed anyways, haven't they?