Encylopedia Dramatica's Ryan Cleary Arrested, split from older ED topic Options

[Greaser]

Ryan has been arrested by Scotland Yard, working in conjunction with the FBI.

[EricBarbour]

Ryan's mother Rita, 44, said her son suffers from agoraphobia and attention deficit disorder and had not left his bedroom for four years.

Earlier this year, the mother of two was fined £100 for allowing her older son to grow cannabis at their home after plants worth £4,300 were seized.

Mrs Cleary, who is on incapacity benefit, claimed her son needed the drugs to ease his epilepsy symptoms.

Speaking at the family's home in Wickford, she said Ryan was an introverted boy who 'lives his life online'.

She added: 'He has a history of mental problems.

'He left school at 15.

'He has stayed in his room for the last four years in front of his computer.

'He is bright, but does not have any social skills.'

The teenager attended Heath School, in Stanway, Colchester, a school for children with special needs, and is said to have constantly spoken in 'computer jargon'.

In short, the stereotypical hacker. Or Wikipedia admin.

[Silver seren]

Question: Is it not true that DeGrippo sent a takedown notice to ED.ch's ISP and that, in order to avoid it, they changed servers?

Because that's what I heard and, if true, it shows proof that they are a copyright violation, since they worked to avoid being taken down as one.

[carbuncle]

Question: Is it not true that DeGrippo sent a takedown notice to ED.ch's ISP and that, in order to avoid it, they changed servers?

Because that's what I heard and, if true, it shows proof that they are a copyright violation, since they worked to avoid being taken down as one.

You have a funny idea of what "proof" means.

[lilburne]

Question: Is it not true that DeGrippo sent a takedown notice to ED.ch's ISP and that, in order to avoid it, they changed servers?

Because that's what I heard and, if true, it shows proof that they are a copyright violation, since they worked to avoid being taken down as one.

You have a funny idea of what "proof" means.

It probably equates to anything that hasn't been printed on shithouse paper.

[Daniel Brandt]

Question: Is it not true that DeGrippo sent a takedown notice to ED.ch's ISP and that, in order to avoid it, they changed servers?

Because that's what I heard and, if true, it shows proof that they are a copyright violation, since they worked to avoid being taken down as one.

No. You do not understand how Ryan worked. He simply ignored DeGrippo's notices. He may have responded with an insult or two for the sake of lulz, but basically he ignored her. His ED.ch servers are in the U.S. but he owns the IP address block.

[May 24 2011 12:46:21] <Ryan> all abuse reports goto me
[May 24 2011 12:46:24] <Ryan> directly
[May 24 2011 12:46:26] <Ryan> we own that IP space
...
[May 24 2011 12:50:39] <Ryan> armucat, legality is not an issue
[May 24 2011 12:50:41] <Ryan> you don't seem to understand
[May 24 2011 12:50:45] <Ryan> we own our own address space
[May 24 2011 12:51:03] <Ryan> the only higher authority than us people can go is to ARIN
[May 24 2011 12:55:36] <Ryan> we face no legal issues in america
[May 24 2011 12:55:37] <Ryan> lol
[May 24 2011 12:55:43] <Ryan> we are not child porn
[May 24 2011 12:56:03] <Ryan> dmcas are worthless because i send counter dmcas, if they want to go further than that they need to take us to court
[May 24 2011 12:56:15] <Ryan> 99% of dmcas are bullshit anyway
[May 24 2011 12:56:20] <Ryan> satire etc
[May 24 2011 12:56:28] <Ryan> they cant bring libel against us either

DeGrippo owned the old ED.com address block also, but since her legal instrument (Edrama LLC) is registered in the U.S. and her street address is in Kalamazoo, Michigan, she was more vulnerable. In ED.com's later days, they were responding to DMCA requests somewhat more responsibly than Ryan did. Ryan is in the UK, and is more protected against U.S. civil actions, if only because it is expensive to hire those UK dudes who wear those funny white wigs.

If you don't own your address space, the DMCA goes to your hosting provider. Depending on the mood they're in, they may knee-jerk and pull the plug on your entire site just because that's the easiest way to respond. WR is in that position, and so are 99 percent of all websites in the U.S.

As far as ED.ch's survival goes, there are two issues right now. One is whether Ryan will be able to continue administering the ED.ch servers, and the other is whether the other sysadmin, someone named "garrett", has sufficient privileges on the servers, and sufficient access, and sufficient resources and motivation, to administer ED.ch in Ryan's absence.

[Jun 22 2011 07:18:34] *** garrett changes topic to "ED Status: Still alive. | We know shit is fucked up, we're working on it. | RIP Ryan ;-;"
[Jun 22 2011 07:18:46] <Beefcake> HHHHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
[Jun 22 2011 07:18:58] <garrett> same
[Jun 22 2011 07:19:11] <garrett> i dont think i can backup the forum dbs without access to the box
[Jun 22 2011 07:19:16] <garrett> or at least a panel of some sort
[Jun 22 2011 07:19:27] <Beefcake> isn't root enough?
[Jun 22 2011 07:19:32] <garrett> i dont have root
[Jun 22 2011 07:19:38] <Beefcake> oh
[Jun 22 2011 07:19:57] <Beefcake> can't we contact Ryan some way
[Jun 22 2011 07:19:59] <Beefcake> ?
[Jun 22 2011 07:20:14] <garrett> ...
[Jun 22 2011 07:20:20] <garrett> Yes, lets waltz into scotland yard
[Jun 22 2011 07:20:28] <garrett> and ask if we can talk to an international crime suspect
[Jun 22 2011 07:20:32] <garrett> about a forum issue

[Silver seren]

That's pretty hilarious, actually, that Ryan getting arrested has essentially frozen them from actually taking control of the IP block.

In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the police actually used that to scope out ED.ch and anything else Ryan was involved in. I mean, they are investigating his connection to LulzSec and ED.ch is one of the first places to look, since he is the hoster for it.

This post has been edited by Silver seren:

[SB_Johnny]

Can someone catch me up here? Was Ryan (the arrested guy) in charge of ED?

Just trying to understand this thread... apologies for my lack of omniscience, of course!

[Tarc]

Can someone catch me up here? Was Ryan (the arrested guy) in charge of ED?

Just trying to understand this thread... apologies for my lack of omniscience, of course!

Yes.

Brandt has masturbated at least 3 times today in celebration, too.

[Daniel Brandt]

Brandt has masturbated at least 3 times today in celebration, too.

At least that's healthier than sucking in cans of butane.

Actually, here's a more informative article.

What would we do without British journalism?

[EricBarbour]

What would we do without British journalism?

Haw. Haw haw haw.

We'd huff less butane, I suppose.......

Here's another Daily Fail article about Ryan Cleary. This one doesn't have the ugly watermarks on the photos. Oops.

The Daily Mail gets more sleazy and stupid every day.....amazing.

[Sololol]

What would we do without British journalism?

Haw. Haw haw haw.

We'd huff less butane, I suppose.......

Here's another Daily Fail article about Ryan Cleary. This one doesn't have the ugly watermarks on the photos. Oops.

The Daily Mail gets more sleazy and stupid every day.....amazing.

The Daily Mail: Making American journalism look classy, one day at a time.
I feel the slightest twinges of embarrassment for the various government security chiefs who have to point to this guy as the firewall-hacking master criminal.

[lilburne]

So when did he make these regular visits?

Before Christmas.

[MaliceAforethought]

So good to see governments spending their time going after "master" criminals. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/confused.gif)

[Milton Roe]

So good to see governments spending their time going after "master" criminals. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/confused.gif)

"The Lulz Security Hacking Group." (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/confused.gif) For anybody who has read ED, the name itself has some lulz.

The rest is so archetypical that it might have been written as satire by somebody on ED:

The mother of the teenage computer geek accused over a series of hacking attacks revealed last night how he threatened to kill himself when she tried to confiscate his beloved computer.

Rita Cleary said her son Ryan had not set foot outside the family bungalow since Christmas and had his food left outside his bedroom door. He cut himself off from the outside world, leaving his room only to visit the bathroom.

But when Mrs Cleary attempted to cut the jobless 19-year-old’s internet access, he responded by saying he would slit his wrists.

I suppose there's a lulzworthy article in considering what happens when you go from living like THAT in your embryonic hideyhole being fed by your mother while you spend all your time jacked into the net, to being in a lock-up where you need to worry about getting your realworldass stretched by Joe Streetpunk, and your entire access to electronics consists of sometimes being able to make collect calls from the day room wall-phone, whilst Joe looks at the back of your neck.

If ED weren't such an essentially cruel site, all this would be more horrifying. As it is, I have to say that some of it should count as inpatient therapy for an addict. It's horrible but has to be done. And considering what ED would say about anybody else it happened to, all you can do is suggest that they write up an article about Ryan getting butthurt, then post it on Uncyclopedia, where it really belongs. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/wink.gif)

[Daniel Brandt]

The Cleary household is either rather clever at gaming the system, or is entirely screwed up, in my opinion. Before Ryan was a household word, his brother Mitchell and mother Rita were in court after police seized 39 cannabis plants and three large jars of cannabis. This happened last March. The attorney for Mitchell and Rita said that both of them "claimed incapacity benefit of £94 per fortnight and that they both suffered from agoraphobia, a fear of public or unfamiliar places." Mitchell smoked canabis to "ease the symptoms of epilepsy."

It worked then with Mitchell, but Mrs. Cleary might have trouble this time. Even if Ryan makes bail, I presume that he won't be allowed to go online as a condition of that bail. And if the UK authorities seem too lenient, there's always the possibility that the FBI will get pissed off and file for extradition of Ryan to the U.S. There appears to be evidence of Ryan's DDoSing and/or hacking that falls within U.S. jurisdiction.

You could also argue that even if Ryan needs psychiatric help, he sure as hell wasn't getting enough of it in his bedroom from his cat. He might be better off anyplace other than his bedroom, even prison. That's particularly true if the court makes sure that he has no Internet connection in his bedroom as a condition of bail or probation or whatever.

I think Mrs. Cleary had her chance already, and by now she is part of the problem.

[Milton Roe]

The Cleary household is either rather clever at gaming the system, or is entirely screwed up, in my opinion. Before Ryan was a household word, his brother Mitchell and mother Rita were in court after police seized 39 cannabis plants and three large jars of cannabis. This happened last March. The attorney for Mitchell and Rita said that both of them "claimed incapacity benefit of £94 per fortnight and that they both suffered from agoraphobia, a fear of public or unfamiliar places." Mitchell smoked canabis to "ease the symptoms of epilepsy."

You could also argue that even if Ryan needs psychiatric help, he sure as hell wasn't getting enough of it in his bedroom from his cat. He might be better off anyplace other than his bedroom, even prison. That's particularly true if the court makes sure that he has no Internet connection in his bedroom as a condition of bail or probation or whatever.

I think Mrs. Cleary had her chance already, and by now she is part of the problem.

If you read between the lines, you might consider that Ryan has been after the pot store lately, as well. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/fear.gif)

I mean, come now. Have none of you ever heard of people smoking so much pot that they just sit around at home all day playing with their toys, and never go out and do anything at all?

I've heard of it. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/hrmph.gif) It's an EXTREMELY rare side effect of cannabis use, but it's been reported in the medical literature. Yes it has.

[Somey]

I've heard of it. (IMG:smilys0b23ax56/default/hrmph.gif) It's an EXTREMELY rare side effect of cannabis use, but it's been reported in the medical literature. Yes it has.

Bummin'?

I guess I wouldn't be surprised to see an article about that in JAMA, but you'd think it would be enough just to listen to some old 60's albums. Or maybe stay overnight in a frat-house a couple of times...

Anyway, I can sort of see why people of this sort would want to target large companies like Sony or even some of the larger ISPs, but when you go after the government, especially if it's your own, innocent civilians have to pay for that. That's money that could go to much better purposes, even though it often goes towards worse purposes like it usually did during the previous decade. Besides, there are better ways to stick it to the man, aren't they? But I guess those all require you to leave your bedroom... Damn, life sure is complicated these days.

[Daniel Brandt]

As far as ED.ch's survival goes, there are two issues right now. One is whether Ryan will be able to continue administering the ED.ch servers, and the other is whether the other sysadmin, someone named "garrett", has sufficient privileges on the servers, and sufficient access, and sufficient resources and motivation, to administer ED.ch in Ryan's absence.

Update: The details of what happened are unclear, but Garrett and Joepie91 had to abandon the server that was associated with Ryan Cleary. After a week of tinkering, things now seem relatively stable on a new box. For anyone who has copyright issues with content that is currently available on Encyclopedia Dramatica, the good news is that this new box is located in the U.S. It appears to be a dedicated server housed in a data center, and the box itself is owned by a web hosting provider that is obligated to operate under U.S. Digital Millennium Copyright Act provisions.

The Encyclopedia Dramatica watchdog site, josephevers.blogspot.com has identified this new provider and has just published information about how to file DMCA requests against specific content on Encyclopedia Dramatica.

[Somey]

It seems this may have had some effect - the ED home (and I'd assume, catch-all) URL is now just a simple static HTML page, saying they need a new hosting provider (and, of course, "donations" for same), one that "is able to host our kind of content."

There's more info on the ED forums, if you're willing to risk loading pages from there - if you do, be sure to read the comments too, of course. It looks like the DMCA request came from Sherrod DiGrippo herself, who apparently still claims copyright on the name.