Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

sijmen.ruwhof.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 169 posts

Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#71

Post by stevespang »

EMRZ wrote: post #16

Sorry if i don't understand this totally, but why is scraping for pdf and ppt/pptx files and mirroring them illegal? If you can reach that files just scraping it means they are somehow open to public access. No joke, i am genuinely asking.

If the site owner is actually a Russian living in Russia - - law enforcement and courts of democratic countries cannot get access to him, Russia does not extradite it's citizens, only Google has the power to stop this (but they obviously have a conflict of interest because like credit card co's and real estate agents and so many others they only make $$$ if the deal goes through).

Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#73

Post by heinrichhartman »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #70
pjc50 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because they're published on the internet doesn't mean you can rehost them - that's copyright infringement. (The Internet Archive is very careful to skirt the edge of what's permissible and what they can get away with in this regard)

I get the impression ATM that copyright infringement is legal as long as nobody complains. When one person complains or files a DMCA takedown notice, no problem, it gets taken down. It needs to be a big company's documents - like Elsevier or (in the Bittorrent era) music publishers - before a major legal action is undertaken to take a site offline. TL;DR it's not a crime if nobody complains. Now that someone complain…

Following the same logic killing someone would also be legal as long as "nobody complains".

Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#74

Post by [deleted] »

yesenadam wrote: post #53
sametmax wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence” said Napoleon.

Never ascribe to Napoleon etc. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/12/30/not-malice/ TL;DR Seems to have been first attributed to 'Napolean' on Usenet in 1997!

[deleted]

Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#75

Post by pjc50 »

Cthulhu_ wrote: post #70
pjc50 wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just because they're published on the internet doesn't mean you can rehost them - that's copyright infringement. (The Internet Archive is very careful to skirt the edge of what's permissible and what they can get away with in this regard)

I get the impression ATM that copyright infringement is legal as long as nobody complains. When one person complains or files a DMCA takedown notice, no problem, it gets taken down. It needs to be a big company's documents - like Elsevier or (in the Bittorrent era) music publishers - before a major legal action is undertaken to take a site offline. TL;DR it's not a crime if nobody complains. Now that someone complain…

In most places it's not part of criminal law but a civil matter, although the copyright industry has taken steps to change that under the guise of "counterfeiting".

Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#77

Post by scottlocklin »

shakna wrote: post #6

> According to another source, a public address book at locatefamily.com, someone under the name Vladimir S. Nesterenko is living at [REDACTED] in Moscow. Vladimir lives according to Google Streetview it’s an apartment complex far away from the Moscow city center... Really? Someone investigating with journalists, and may be considered a journalists themselves (?), actually publishes the address of someone that they a…

It's extremely likely that this person isn't responsible for the website, or knows anything about it. Criminal or shady activities in Russia (and everywhere else) are often laundered through cutouts.

You can find an example of this in "Magnitsky act: behind the scenes" where Bill Browder allegedly laundered his corporate holdings for tax fraud through various handicapped people, and eventually gangsters who were conveniently murdered.

Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#78

Post by [deleted] »

hahla wrote: post #17

I read through the article and I’m baffled. I couldn’t watch the news video or understand what was going on at the bottom of the post... but were news outlets and the government involved for a site that’s skimming PDFs, hosting them and then slapping on ads? This isn’t something new and if I recall correctly SlideShare did the same thing to grow to where they are today. Is it legal, I don’t know, but these types of s…

[deleted]

Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#79

Post by siderax »

sametmax wrote: post #50
richrichardsson wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd go with a). Very dumb move.

“Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence” said Napoleon.

That's Hanlon razor :) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon%27s_razor

Re: One of the world’s most visited websites that nobody is aware of (2017)

#80

Post by mikestew »

jrobn wrote: post #38

Here is the real question everybody should ask themselves: In today’s world, Why do I try to work honestly for a dollar?

It's a great question, and the true answer isn't necessarily the default the (somewhat) rhetorical question assumes. Personally, an honest life is more important to me than money. OTOH, that's easy to say living on/with a software engineer's salary and job prospects.
Post reply on HN