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EasyDNS threatened with criminal complaint if client data not disclosed

easydns.com

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Re: EasyDNS threatened with criminal complaint if client data not disclosed

#101
post #7

Attorney here! (Not legal advice, consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction.) Don't get me wrong, but easyDNS may be jumping hastily to conclusions. In many countries, soliciting business there makes you subject to its jurisdiction and laws, regardless of where your business is based. I don't know German law, but I hope that easyDNS consulted their own attorneys on the subject before publishing this post, or t…

Judging by their ToS, I wouldn't be so sure that easyDNS has attorneys.

Re: EasyDNS threatened with criminal complaint if client data not disclosed

#102
post #59

I've used EasyDNS for many years now. They never spam me. They always provide knowledgeable responses to my inquiries. Their online tools have always been simple and worked well. I would recommend EasyDNS to anyone who is looking for no-nonsense DNS hosting.

I have been using them for my personal DNS for years - Been happy with them as well.

Re: EasyDNS threatened with criminal complaint if client data not disclosed

#103
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Personally I'll take a blunt 'no, we won't tolerate this' over a load of hot air. Get to the point and let's move on. This gets my approval.

You approve of maliciously tampering with customer configs to punish them? I get suspending someone, I don't get "we may also wildcard your DNS to localhost and set the TTL on your zone out to a year"

Many platforms (e.g. Amazon, Google) will block your account without warning and any new ones you create trying to get back into their platform, and defend their behaviour with generic 'violation of T&Cs' statements to kick you off their platforms permanently. I'm not condoning this behaviour, but at least EasyDNS spell this out plainly. And since DNS is their core product, the mechanism makes sense.

Re: EasyDNS threatened with criminal complaint if client data not disclosed

#104
post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You approve of maliciously tampering with customer configs to punish them? I get suspending someone, I don't get "we may also wildcard your DNS to localhost and set the TTL on your zone out to a year"

Many platforms (e.g. Amazon, Google) will block your account without warning and any new ones you create trying to get back into their platform, and defend their behaviour with generic 'violation of T&Cs' statements to kick you off their platforms permanently. I'm not condoning this behaviour, but at least EasyDNS spell this out plainly. And since DNS is their core product, the mechanism makes sense.

How could you possibly compare that to

> we may also wildcard your DNS to localhost and set the TTL on your zone out to a year

This is going way beyond suspending a customer, this is an active attack by EasyDNS.

Re: EasyDNS threatened with criminal complaint if client data not disclosed

#105
post #95
post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having been in that business: Web hosting companies receive a TON of abuse. Some of them specialize in dealing with large DDoS attacks, unpopular/illegal/shady content, but most don't and want to spend their time on their product instead. Scammers typically open tons of similar accounts, register expensive phishing domains and host phishing pages on your network, and guilt-by-association is how you clean it up. Most…

>Most of the things in their ToS are very common with any professional hosting company who is fed up with scammers, they just don't tell you about it like that. Yeah, maybe if you primarily deal with lowendtalk hosts operated by 12yo kids. Actual professional hosting companies would never even consider this stuff.

Screening domain registrations for abuse, removing sybil accounts (i.e. "guilt by association), cooperating with authorities, terminating the contract for DDoS attacks they can't handle and shutting down Nazi pages is something the vast majority of professional hosting companies will do.

Of course, if it's a purely B2B hosting company of the "Talk to our sales department and sign a contract" variety, it's less of issue, but even they have to deal with spammers and fake company registrations who really want those clean IP blocks and will have clauses in their ToS that allows them to terminate the contract immediately.

In fact, the only providers who do not do this are the cheap low-end hosts who don't care about their IP and ASN reputation.

Re: EasyDNS threatened with criminal complaint if client data not disclosed

#106
post #105
post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Most of the things in their ToS are very common with any professional hosting company who is fed up with scammers, they just don't tell you about it like that. Yeah, maybe if you primarily deal with lowendtalk hosts operated by 12yo kids. Actual professional hosting companies would never even consider this stuff.

Screening domain registrations for abuse, removing sybil accounts (i.e. "guilt by association), cooperating with authorities, terminating the contract for DDoS attacks they can't handle and shutting down Nazi pages is something the vast majority of professional hosting companies will do. Of course, if it's a purely B2B hosting company of the "Talk to our sales department and sign a contract" variety, it's less of iss…

>we may also wildcard your DNS to localhost and set the TTL on your zone out to a year. You’ve been warned

Go ahead, name some "professional" hosting companies with similar practices.

Re: EasyDNS threatened with criminal complaint if client data not disclosed

#107

EasyDNS's Plain English Terms of Service make them seem like a really unprofessional company: >We are NOT a DDoS Mitigation Service. [...] If you come on this system knowingly bringing a DDoS on your heels we shut down service (we may also wildcard your DNS to localhost and set the TTL on your zone out to a year. You’ve been warned). or >Guilt-by-Association: not only do we terminate any domains or websites which vio…

> seem like a really unprofessional company Ah, "unprofessional". An adjective that can be tackled on to anything in a business setting, meaning "something I don't like but can't quite articulate why, only that's different to what I'm used to".

I feel like "unethical" better describes the practices described in the document, "unprofessional" is really selling it short.

Re: EasyDNS threatened with criminal complaint if client data not disclosed

#108

The response reminds me of some of the Pirate Bay's responses: https://beebulletin.com/hilarious-pirate-bay-legal-responses... The tone is pretty much inviting a judge to impose a hefty fine for noncompliance. I'm not saying they're wrong, just that it seems like a risky stance to take.

Non-compliance with what? Some random lawyer's demand? Wouldn't they have to get the court to make that demand in the first place?

Re: EasyDNS threatened with criminal complaint if client data not disclosed

#109
post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many platforms (e.g. Amazon, Google) will block your account without warning and any new ones you create trying to get back into their platform, and defend their behaviour with generic 'violation of T&Cs' statements to kick you off their platforms permanently. I'm not condoning this behaviour, but at least EasyDNS spell this out plainly. And since DNS is their core product, the mechanism makes sense.

How could you possibly compare that to > we may also wildcard your DNS to localhost and set the TTL on your zone out to a year This is going way beyond suspending a customer, this is an active attack by EasyDNS.

It does indeed go beyond a suspension, it's a ban, and that's why I equate it to Amazon and Google blocking any new accounts - they are banning you from their platform, arguably for life. At least EasyDNS offer it to be 12 months.

I'm no DNS expert, but AFAIK, you can transfer the zone to another provider (one that you don't violate the T&Cs with) and from there you could conceivably regain control over the domain.

Re: EasyDNS threatened with criminal complaint if client data not disclosed

#110
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Screening domain registrations for abuse, removing sybil accounts (i.e. "guilt by association), cooperating with authorities, terminating the contract for DDoS attacks they can't handle and shutting down Nazi pages is something the vast majority of professional hosting companies will do. Of course, if it's a purely B2B hosting company of the "Talk to our sales department and sign a contract" variety, it's less of iss…

>we may also wildcard your DNS to localhost and set the TTL on your zone out to a year. You’ve been warned Go ahead, name some "professional" hosting companies with similar practices.

With how tongue-in-cheek the whole document is, this is clearly a joke to emphasize their point (which, I agree, has no place in a legal document, no matter how plain). My point is that everything else in the document is pretty much industry standard, except that others are less...direct about it.

https://easydns.com/terms-of-service

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