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OPENLOAD has its DOMAIN Suspended... OOOOHH NOOOOOO!!! (Update Shut Down.. Rip 10/31/19)

fonzerrillii

fonzerrillii

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File-Sharing Giant Openload Has its Domain Suspended
Openload, one of the largest file-hosting sites on the Internet, has lost control over its main domain name. The Openload.co domain is been suspended, presumably by the registrar Tucows, and is currently marked with a serverHold status code. On top of that, Openload's official status page is unreachable as well.



With millions of regular visitors, file-hosting site Openload generates more traffic than popular streaming services such as Hulu or HBO Go.

While the site has plenty of legal uses it is also a thorn in the side of many copyright holders, due to the frequent appearance of pirated content.

This pirate stigma most recently resulted in a mention on the US Government’s list of “Notorious Markets”.

While the site has been spared from any legal action, that we know of, it suffered a major setback this week. As of a few hours ago the site’s main Openload.co domain is no longer responsive.

Instead of the regular homepage featuring the browser uploader, users see an error message in their browser, explaining that the site’s IP-address can’t be found.

openloaderror.png

Openload is missing
The error message is the result of missing DNS entries, which is also apparent from the ‘serverHold’ status message in the domain’s Whois details.

According to ICANN, the serverHold domain status is uncommon and “usually enacted during legal disputes, non-payment, or when your domain is subject to deletion.”

This status is set by the domain registrar, which is Tucows in this case, and renders the domain inaccessible.

openwhois.png

serverHold
It’s unclear why this this action was taken. We’ve reached out to Tucows but the company didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Interestingly, Malwarebytes currently blocks the Openload.co domain name because it may contain a Trojan. Whether that’s related to the broader domain issue is unknown.

Openload hasn’t made any public statement on the issue, as far as we know. However, it is worth noting that the site’s official status page is unreachable as well. The status page downtime is not tied to a domain problem but appears to be server related.

This isn’t the first time Openload has had a domain name suspended. The same happened in 2016, when domain registrar Namecheap presumably took action after “too many DMCA complaints.”

Openload was eventually able to regain control over the domain and Namecheap publicly admitted that its legal team “was too heavy handed,” adding that Openload should be fine as long as they properly respond to DMCA notices.

Openload is believed to have some backup domains. Oload.stream and Oload.life are working alternatives that serve the same content, it seems, but we were unable to confirm 100% that these are official.

https://torrentfreak.com/file-sharing-giant-openload-has-its-domain-suspended-190619/
 
I'm down in the music thread... doing what I do.. Went to my favorite site.. and then Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo


http://openload.com/ ------ gone again


AridGrimyCero-small.gif




Openload Domain Suspended By Namecheap
  • BY ANDY
  • ON JULY 26, 2016
  • C: 41
BREAKING



Openload, one of the largest file-hosting sites on the Internet, has had its domain suspended. According to the site's operator, domain registrar Namecheap took action last evening after receiving "too many DMCA complaints". Openload says all complaints are actioned within 24 hours.

Copyright holders know that one of the most effective ways to hinder a file-sharing site is to attack its domain. As a result, various strategies have emerged to deprive owners of their use.

Those methods range from a basic complaint to registrars over incomplete or inaccurate WHOIS entries, to the more complex seizing of domains via the legal system.

The amount of time spent on enforcement is often comparable with the quality of the end results. WHOIS information is quickly fixed but domains ordered seized by a judge tend to stay that way forever.

Interestingly, a situation now faced by a leading file-hosting site might lie somewhere in the middle.

Openload is one of the most-used file-hosting platforms on the Internet, with more traffic than 4shared, Rapidgator and Uploaded. It has a worldwide Alexa rank of 402 and millions of visitors every week but yesterday a wrench was thrown into the works.

Around 18:22 Monday, Openload’s .co domain was suspended by its registrar Namecheap. As can be seen in the entry below, the reason is reported as “abuse”.






Namecheap passed our request for comment to its legal department who have yet to formally respond. However, we were able to contact the operator of Openload who confirmed that there had been an alleged breach of Namecheap’s Terms of Service.

“Namecheap suspended our domain for abuse according to their TOS,” Openload’s operator told TF. “Basically, they just said that they received too many DMCA reports.”

It is fairly unusual for a domain registrar to be targeted with so many copyright complaints since they are traditionally directed at the site itself, its webhost, or both. In this case, however, Namecheap appears to have been overwhelmed.

To get an idea of potential scale, in less than a year Google has received in excess of 450,000 DMCA complaints against Openload’s .co and .io domains.






The range of entertainment companies involved is broad, from the RIAA, Netflix and Warner Bros, to various Japanese anime distributors. Indeed, a large proportion of Openload’s traffic hails from Japan.

That being said, Openload says it is DMCA-compliant and processes complaints in a timely fashion.

“[The complaints received by Namecheap] were of course all taken down within 6-24 hours, but the number of notices is too much for them,” the site told us.

Copyright holders do have other options though. In addition to inviting complaints via a standard web form, Openload also offers a takedown tool.

“Openload is anxious to optimize the process of taking down files that violate copyright. Therefore Openload is offering a takedown API,” the site says.

But while takedowns are important, Openload does have a feature that tends to irritate copyright holders – paying uploaders for the amount of downloads they generate.

“We pay a fixed amount per 10,000 downloads/streams. Each payment amount per download/stream depends on the country the actions comes from,” the site explains on its rewards page.






Of course, YouTube also pays uploaders for the amount of traffic they generate but copyright holders have traditionally drawn a line in the sand when the same is offered by Openload-type hosting sites. The U.S. Department of Justice indictment against Megaupload famously paints a loosely similar scheme in a very dim light.

For now, Openload has lost control of its main Openload.co domain but the site is back up and running at Oload.co, a domain that was purchased last night following Namecheap’s suspension.

“Our site is reachable via oload.co which is actually a kind of read-only site. All features will return on the new domain during the next hours,” Openload’s operator concludes.

Update: Openload’s original domain suspension has been lifted by Namecheap. The company is yet to respond to our request for comment.

Update 2: Noting that Namecheap previously opposed SOPA, a customer has questioned the registrar on Facebook about the Openload suspension.

“Openload is now back,” Namecheap said in response. “We acknowledge that our legal team was too heavy handed in this case, and we’ve taken steps internally to ensure that this won’t happen again. As long as they respond to DMCA complaints within required time frames, they should be ok going forward.”

https://torrentfreak.com/openload-domain-suspended-by-namecheap-160726/

oload works sort of..
 
Last edited:
Well we had a nice run....

I just need mega to continue to hold on out... I’ll continue to say that mega is no different then Dropbox or google drive.
 
Yeah they haven't worked properly since this happened over the summer I stopped even trying. The feds and corporations are cracking down like a champ.
 

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