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.

[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.

[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

[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.