Paypal Bans Usenet Providers Over Piracy Concerns

http://torrentfreak.com/paypal-bans-usenet-providers-over-piracy-concerns-12112

by cleverjake • 14 years ago

52 46 14 years ago

bkor• 14 years ago

Interesting in light of the questions asked by the EU about the control of payment providers. Those questions were specifically about WikiLeaks, but the same applies to usenet providers as well as private torrent sites.

tomjen3• 14 years ago

Well more business for Stripe (not that they needed it).

jamoes• 14 years ago

No centralized payment provider is immune from US law. Eventually Stripe will suffer the same fate.

DannyBee• 14 years ago

Can you please point out the portion of US law you believe requires paypal to do this?

rb2k_• 14 years ago

Might help Bitcoin as a decentralized payment provider then :)

jebblue2• 14 years ago

Chrome warned me there is a malware connected site on that page.

harshreality2• 14 years ago

Torrentfreak? I don't get any warnings in chrome. Also: http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=torrentfr...

jebblue2• 14 years ago

This is what Chrome told me:

Danger: Malware Ahead! Google Chrome has blocked access to this page on torrentfreak.com. Content from ox-d.traffiqexchange.com, a known malware distributor, has been inserted into this web page. Visiting this page now is very likely to infect your computer with malware.

Groxx2• 14 years ago

Hit esc before the page finishes loading - kills the connection that loads whatever it is that connects to the flagged site.

Havoc• 14 years ago

If chrome detects malware it'll block it on its own.

ernesto992• 14 years ago

One of our ad networks (big name) screwed up.

Removed the ads, sorry for in convenience.

dmix• 14 years ago

+1 for bitcoin.

cschneid• 14 years ago

When my paypal was broken into - it was immediately used to order from a EU based usenet provider.

Paypal reversed it for me, but I wonder how much of this is fraud related?

robk• 14 years ago

This is really bothersome that they're trying to monitor activity on these sites. Paypal has absolutely no place doing that.

drivebyacct22• 14 years ago

Well, maybe this will motivate BitCoin payment methods on these sites. I need to change providers anyway, I'm not happy with mine. Last time I looked, I had only found one provider that accepted BitCoin and they were considerably more expensive (more than the BitCoin markup I was ready to pay even).

rhizome2• 14 years ago

I have to wonder if this is a big fuck-you to the world after the EU's moves against Visa over Wikileaks yesterday. "Sure you might be able to clamp down on them for policing content, but watch what we can do."

ChuckMcM• 14 years ago

Chrome popped this up from the torrentfreak page:

Google Chrome has blocked access to this page on torrentfreak.com. Content from ox-d.traffiqexchange.com, a known malware distributor, has been inserted into this web page. Visiting this page now is very likely to infect your computer with malware. Malware is malicious software that causes things like identity theft, financial loss, and permanent file deletion. Learn more

davorak• 14 years ago

I am not getting that with Chrome. Try accessing through vpn and see if you get the same warning.

ernesto992• 14 years ago

I think this is coming from the (big name) ad network we're using.

Disabled the ads for now and will probably switch to Paypal donations... Oh wait...

farhanpatel• 14 years ago

Usenet is under attack.

A lot of TV/Movie companies are starting to send DMCA requests to usenet providers.

The other day SabMini a iOS client for sabnzbd had to remove support for sickbeard(a PVR for usenet)

I think we are seeing the systematic destruction of Usenet.

Usenet won't go away but just become harder. Releases won't be named correctly to avoid getting DMCA notices.

Looks like someone broke the first rule of Usenet...

Axsuul• 14 years ago

I have seen no evidence of this destruction.

nekojima2• 14 years ago

In the last two or three months I've found it increasingly difficult to find new postings under their titles on my Usenet provider. I wasn't sure initially if it was their search function that was broken/corrupted, but asking Helpdesk doesn't help when they cut you off if you ask for assistance on copyrighted material. Finding another term that doesn't give replies but that should be there, as an alternative, is rather tough.

csense2• 14 years ago

If you're upset at Paypal's behavior and you're building a startup that involves payments, please look into at least offering the option of alternative payment providers.

infectoid• 14 years ago

Honest question. What are some alternatives that aren't likely to pull a paypal?

csense2• 14 years ago

There's been buzz on HN about Stripe, Dwolla, and Bitcoin.

Of course, you shouldn't take my word for it; check them out yourself.

noonespecial3• 14 years ago

Copyright bullies make me mad, but this does have the effect of sussing out the weaknesses in the system when all that is at stake is last weeks "Honey Boo Boo". Its like a trial run for the real deal.

By the time real hardcore censorship tries to become a world-wide phenomenon, the internet will already be well optimized to circumvent it.

If all that comes of this is a strengthening and legitimizing of bitcoin, its still a net win.

Nux2• 14 years ago

So Paypal's also sucking it from the MAFIAA, hardly surprising.

dsl• 14 years ago

Please go back to Reddit.

freshhawk4• 14 years ago

If the internet was clearly winning this fight I would agree. I still partly do since if you had to pick something to do a trial run, this is a decent fit.

The legislators and pro-censorship international treaty writers are also getting a lot of practice. And they seem to be innovating faster and winning more battles than the internet.

noonespecial3• 14 years ago

I think they're just teaching a lesson that the internet has until recently been slow to learn. Centralization is bad. Single-pass bottle-necks like Paypal are worse.

Bitcoin is crazy until it isn't. Its a lot of effort and risk to buy access to a forum that has a few silly TV shows. Not so much when its a patented drug you need to survive that's only available in rich countries to the "right" people.

driverdan• 14 years ago

There is an upside. The more BS like this that PayPal pulls the more people will stop using their service.

nekojima2• 14 years ago

While my credit card company and bank allow me to purchase online without the intrusion and privacy violations that PayPal regularly insists on, I continue to see no reason to use PayPal.

lectrick• 14 years ago

Usenet providers switching to Bitcoin in 3... 2... 1...

freshhawk4• 14 years ago

I'm so glad we've moved past that boring old money. Remember the kind that could be used anywhere and for anything?

Now my money tells me what I can and can't spend it on!

Paypal Bans Usenet Providers Over Piracy Concerns

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