UPDATE: On Monday afternoon, BurstNet issued a statement saying the Blogetery service was taken down after bomb-making instructions and an al-Qaeda hitlist were found on the site.
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — According to several reports published over the weekend, a website providing free WordPress blogs was shut down overnight by its hosting provider BurstNet (www.burst.net) last week at the request of US authorities, under circumstances that remain mysterious more than a week later.
On Friday, July 16, the file sharing information site TorrentFreak reported on the takedown, saying that “a history of abuse” was the reason cited for the site’s removal.
The site, Blogetery, was reportedly shut down Friday, July 9, for legal reasons that remain undisclosed. The service had been home to approximately 73,000 WordPress blogs. In its place, at the moment, is a blank page with the message, “after being BurstNet customer for 7 months our server was terminated without any notification or explanation. We’re trying to resolve the situation.”
The note also links to a message thread on the WebHosting Talk forums, in which a user who appears to be the operator of Blogetery posted what he said were several emails from BurstNet.
“Bn.xx*********** was terminated by request of law enforcement officials, due to material hosted on the server,” read the email posted. “We are limited as to the details we can provide to you, but note that this was a critical matter and the only available option to us was to immediately deactivate the server.”
The email cites the company’s service agreement contract (PDF link here), saying it addresses the issue.
“In the WHT thread, a representative from BurstNet addresses the issue briefly, saying “we notified him when we terminated [the server], and we refunded him his money to his account, because he has other servers with us. If he wants the refund to his card, we can easily do that. However, it should be the least of his concern.”
The BurstNet representative writes that the company is looking into the user’s request for the contact information of the law enforcement agency that requested the takedown.
“Simply put: We cannot give him his data nor can we provide any other details. By stating this, most would recognize that something serious is afoot.”
Some posters responding to the discussion on WHT speculated, based on the nature of the takedown, that the issue may have been related to copyright infringement or possibly child pornography – cases like these sometimes involve the confiscation of server equipment by law enforcement agencies.
A weekend story on CNet quotes BurstNet VP Benjamin Arcus, who said, “I can not disclose which agency or why they [ordered the action]. I can say that this is not a copyright issue.”
The CNet story also anonymously quotes a law enforcement agent who says he is not aware of any agency with the power to turn off service for a large number of users without first jumping through a series of hoops.
DMCA takedown requests, for instance, often require a series of back-and-forth notices of violations, and requests for response. CNet also cites recording and motion picture industry association representatives – groups known for pursuing DMCA takedowns – as saying they weren’t familiar with the Blogetery issue.
In April of 2009, there was some controversy over the FBI’s seizure of servers hosted at colocation company Core IP. The equipment seized belonged to small VoIP vendors, and was seized as a result of complaints from several telcos that certain service bills had gone unpaid long-term. There was a buildup of complaints that led to the raid in that ccase.
Over the days that followed the shutdown, the thread on WebHosting Talk turned into a bit of a discussion on legal liability when providing free services, and the kinds of precautions providers should consider when signing up for services they intend to redistribute, particularly as a free service.
Many of the hosting providers posting in the thread defend BurstNet’s move to comply with law enforcement requests as standard operating procedure.
About Liam Eagle
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle
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