Free Software Magazine caught in the 3fn shutdown crossfire

How did Free Software Magazine end up with such a terrible host in the first place? There are more Web hosting services than humans on the planet, and they end up with these bozos? Hosting services are notoriously scammy and terrible, it is buyer beware all the way. Webhostingtalk.com is a great place to research Web hosting services. Spamhaus and Spamcop also have lots of useful information.

Yes, it's hard to imagine. I could have recommended some good hosting companies but nobody asked me :)

haha, yes they should have asked you. It's not FSM's fault that 3FN are slimy, it just goes to show what a minefield the Internet is.

tc,

Quoting:It's not FSM's fault that 3FN are slimy ...

Would you have the same reaction, If they were just looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction? Remember this is the feds, they sometimes shoot first and ask questions afterwards, or let some nut shoot first and have themselves investigated for not acting more promptly given that they were warned. Call me nasty names, like ... skeptical, commie, fanatic Linux nut.

YBT

They didn't shoot first and ask questions later, this is more like carpet bombing first and asking questions later. I imagine that all their legal clients are quite upset right now.

Hey tech...,

I was just being polite, no intention of starting an on-line war. Oh my, " ... carpet bombing ...", can we presume the damn spot has been successfully removed?

YBT

Nobody died, nobody even got shot at. 3FN got shut down because they are accused of being active participants in a lot of dirty businesses. If 3FN unwittingly had some dirty customers then shutting them down would have been unfair and over-reaching, but that's not the case here.

Still seems like overkill to me. For the sake of the legit customers the way this has been handled will have dire if not fatal consequences for the businesses of many.

Right TA, that's what I felt. There must be some way to balance ensuring no evidence is lost while not destroying the businesses of the legitimate clients by cutting them (and their clients) off from their sites (and data, which could be everything from simple customer lists to customer financial data, etc. that they may not have a backup of) for some indefinite amount of time with no warning. I don't know what it would be course...but there's gotta be something better. *shrug*

Quoting:Nobody died, nobody even got shot at.

Aw, man...

gus, I shot at some clay pigeons yesterday... does that help?

A woman after my own heart! But really, double-aught? As the saying goes:

"The way to a man's heart is through his ribcage with a really sharp knife."

Did anyone notice just how bad the grammar and usage is in this article? If that represents the quality of FSM maybe it would have been OK if they had been put out of their misery.

Did anyone else click through to the FTC site and read the complaint? 3fn is accused of hosting child pornography and various schemes to defraud the public and steal identities (i.e.: phishing schemes). They are also accused to deliberately shielding their shady customers from investigators and doing all they can to obstruct the investigation. Under these conditions I don't think there was any choice but to shut them down.

Hi,

@caitlyn:

1) Have you *actually* read any other article published in FSM?

2) Are you seriously making assumptions about the quality of FSM _as a whole_ based on an article written in a hurry, while I was obviously going through a rather stressful chain of events?

3) Contents is free. Patches are welcome.

Finally:

"Under these conditions I don't think there was any choice but to shut them down."

Yes there was.

Merc.

No, I've never read any other content on the site. After reading this I don't think I will in the future.

Let me rephrase: considering we're talking about fraud and child pornography I am very glad 3fn was shut down. I think it was the right thing for the government to do.

Query from end of last week's bewilderment found at http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/29113/

U.S.'s FTC shutting down 3FN rogues 'FTC Shuts Down Notorious Rogue Internet Service Provider, 3FN Service Specializes in Hosting Spam-Spewing Botnets, Phishing Web sites, Child Pornography, and Other Illegal, Malicious Web Content' found at http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/06/3fn.shtm

This helps explains it.