Thankfully for Mac developers everywhere, Macserialjunkie (aka MSJ) has been down for quite a few days now.
Interestingly, though, I notice that it’s now being hosted directly in IP space belonging to Infinite Technologies. For those who don’t know, Infinite Technologies are colluding with the people running MSJ. How do I know this? Well, because we complained about MSJ to the ISP that they were using, who told us that it was being hosted by one of their clients and passed on our complaint.
In response, I got an e-mail from Ganesh Rao, who styles himself “Head of Network Operations/Network Architect”:
From: Ganesh Rao Subject: Re: macserialjunkie.com Date: 17 July 2008 17:26:42 BST To: Alastair Houghton
Hello Mr. Houghton,
And how are you related to this site or its activities?
Kind Regards,
Ganesh Rao
Head of Operations/ Network ArchitectInfinite Technologies
FF-2, #17, 5th Main
Airport Road
Bangalore 560 017W: www.InfiniteTech.in
P: +91.991-697-1255
E: [redacted]
Seems friendly enough, right? Well I explained what MSJ was and what id did and that I didn’t think that any ISP that claimed to be supportive of copyright should be hosting such a website. Ganesh replied:
From: Ganesh Rao Subject: Re: macserialjunkie.com Date: 22 July 2008 22:15:03 BST To: Alastair Houghton
Hello,
I contacted the webmaster, nothing of what you claim that the site hosts is true.
Please let me know if you have any proof to back your claims.
Kind Regards,
Ganesh Rao
Head of Operations/ Network ArchitectInfinite Technologies
FF-2, #17, 5th Main
Airport Road
Bangalore 560 017W: www.InfiniteTech.in
P: +91.991-697-1255
E: [redacted]
I found that quite offensive—basically Ganesh Rao was calling me a liar—and I said so. Eventually the conversation ended with
From: Ganesh Rao Subject: Re: macserialjunkie.com Date: 23 July 2008 14:28:29 BST To: Alastair Houghton
Hello,
You are too confident Mr. Houghton. Do you think your the first and only one trying to do this?
If as you assume this is going to be easy, your mistaken. We have connections with multiple Swedish ISPs. If we feel any discomfort from you, transferring data over to one of them and shredding this one wouldn't be too hard. You'll now end up fighting a case in Sweden, and perhaps some other country after that. Quite frankly - I don't see a point with this.
And to answer your question directly: no action will be taken on the site :)
Your best bet (and most economical) will be to contact the webmaster and have content you find uncomfortable removed.
Kind Regards,
Ganesh Rao
Head of Operations/ Network ArchitectInfinite Technologies
FF-2, #17, 5th Main
Airport Road
Bangalore 560 017W: www.InfiniteTech.in
P: +91.991-697-1255
E: [redacted]
Notice that the tone has changed completely. Originally Mr. Rao was trying to make it seem as if he had no relationship with Macserialjunkie. But in this final e-mail the relationship is obvious. He talks about how “we” have connections with multiple Swedish ISPs, and about how easy it would be to transfer the data over to one of them.
Anyway, after forwarding this to the upstream ISP, it seems that action was eventually taken to kick MSJ off the servers they were using. It has, of course, resurfaced, but this time at 94.100.27.140, which (surprise surprise) is registered to none other than Infinite Technologies and in particular Mr. Ganesh Rao:
OrgName: RIPE Network Coordination Centre OrgID: RIPE Address: P.O. Box 10096 City: Amsterdam StateProv: PostalCode: 1001EB Country: NL ReferralServer: whois://whois.ripe.net:43 NetRange: 94.0.0.0 - 94.255.255.255 CIDR: 94.0.0.0/8 NetName: 94-RIPE NetHandle: NET-94-0-0-0-1 Parent: NetType: Allocated to RIPE NCC NameServer: NS-PRI.RIPE.NET NameServer: SEC1.APNIC.NET NameServer: SEC3.APNIC.NET NameServer: TINNIE.ARIN.NET NameServer: NS.LACNIC.NET Comment: These addresses have been further assigned to users in Comment: the RIPE NCC region. Contact information can be found in Comment: the RIPE database at http://www.ripe.net/whois RegDate: 2007-07-30 Updated: 2007-08-07 # ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2008-11-23 19:10 # Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database. % This is the RIPE Whois query server #2. % The objects are in RPSL format. % % Rights restricted by copyright. % See http://www.ripe.net/db/copyright.html % Note: This output has been filtered. % To receive output for a database update, use the "-B" flag % Information related to '94.100.27.0 - 94.100.27.255' inetnum: 94.100.27.0 - 94.100.27.255 netname: INFINITE-TECH descr: INFINITE-TECH country: NL admin-c: ITGR-RIPE tech-c: ITGR-RIPE org: ORG-ITPL2-RIPE status: ASSIGNED PA mnt-by: ITECH-MNT mnt-lower: ITECH-MNT mnt-domains: ITECH-MNT mnt-routes: ITECH-MNT source: RIPE # Filtered organisation: ORG-ITPL2-RIPE org-name: Infinite Technologies org-type: OTHER address: Postbus 964 address: 5000 AZ, Tilburg address: The Netherlands remarks: +-------------------------- remarks: Abuse Complaints = Email Only remarks: Technical Support = Email & Phone remarks: +-------------------------- abuse-mailbox: abuse@infinitetech.in mnt-ref: ITECH-MNT mnt-by: ITECH-MNT source: RIPE # Filtered person: Ganesh Rao address: PO Box 964 address: Tilburg, 5000 AZ address: The Netherlands phone: +31-(0)13-2202617 fax-no: +1 (408) 856-2445 abuse-mailbox: abuse@infinitetech.in remarks: +-------------------------- remarks: Head of Operations remarks: Technical / Sales / Abuse Dept. remarks: +-------------------------- nic-hdl: ITGR-RIPE mnt-by: ITECH-MNT source: RIPE # Filtered % Information related to '94.100.16.0/20AS35017' route: 94.100.16.0/20 descr: PL-SWIFTWAY-20080709 origin: AS35017 mnt-by: swiftway-mnt source: RIPE # Filtered
Their new upstream ISP appears to be Swiftway, a Polish firm that for some reason uses a UK domain name for its site. It seems unlikely that hosting MSJ is something that is allowable under Swiftway’s Acceptable Use Policy, since it (MSJ) clearly is used “to distribute…material in violation of applicable law…in a manner that will infringe the copyright…of others”.