RLSLOG Pulled Offline After Universal Music Complaint

Ernesto
April 26, 2010
107
rlslog,
Universal Music
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RLSLOG, one of the world’s most popular release news sites, has been pulled offline by its German hosting company following a takedown request from Universal Music. The site, which has never hosted any copyrighted material on its servers, is currently looking for a new home outside Germany.

rlslog With millions of visitors every month, RLSLOG has grown out to be the authority when it comes to news about scene releases. A hard-working team of editors constantly ensures that fresh releases are covered daily, week in week out.

Yesterday, however, its readers were shook up by an absence of news. Instead of seeing the regular homepage, visitors were welcomed by the following unpleasant message:

“RLSLOG.net was suspended by its German hosting company after removal request from law firm representing Universal Music, although we never hosted any files or copyrighted data on our server. Our site is strictly informative,” the message reads.

TorrentFreak briefly caught up with RLSLOG founder Martin who told us that he’s currently trying to find a new home for his site, hopefully with a hosting company that will not shut down the site so easily. The suspension came without prior notice, hence the downtime.

This is not the first time that RLSLOG is been put out of action by takedown notices. Last year, Web Sheriff sent complaints to RLSLOG’s former host and the host’s bandwidth provider, who then took the site offline. Also, Google has filtered several of RLSLOG’s pages from its search results after complaints from copyright holders.

These issues raise the question whether sites such as RLSLOG are acting within the law or not. Technically the site is not hosting any copyrighted material, but it generally does point readers to various locations where copyrighted material can be found. Legally, this is a gray area in most countries.

As we’ve learned from the cases against torrent sites like The Pirate Bay and Mininova, not hosting copyrighted material on ones site is no prerequisite for the courts to find operators not guilty of assisting in copyright infringement. RLSLOG might actually have an even worse case since the ‘links’ are selected and published by the site’s editors.

Refraining from posting links to searches or files hosted externally might be the only option to avoid legal issues at a future host. However, for RLSLOG founder Martin, his primary concern is finding a new hosting provider so he can get the site back online again.

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Matt

:( Checked it several times every day. Must get a new host soon!!
Satish

RLSLOG is a good website. I hope it gets up and running again.
John

Thanks for getting the post up
Anon

These issues raise the question whether sites such as Google are acting within the law or not. Technically the site is not hosting any copyrighted material, but it generally does point readers to various locations where copyrighted material can be found. Legally, this is a gray area in most countries.
duane

@4 Anon

If *search* engines are not acting within the law, then the law needs to change.

What it comes down to is, technology companies are more important than entertainment companies. If the law must put one before the other, I’d prefer it favoured Google over Universal music!
aprime

zerosec.ws

oneddl.com

scnsrc.net
Anon

“Technically the site is not hosting any copyrighted material, but it generally does point readers to various locations where copyrighted material can be found.”

That’s stretching the truth a bit. From what I can remember RLSLOG only linked to third-party sites which in turn linked to .torrent-files which in turn linked to people having the copyrighted material.

That is, if you don’t count all those countless RS links posted by the users.
Kmaid

I think Google are all too aware of the issues it is facing with decisions like these and primary reason it pulled out of china. They know if they were forced to filter results their service would suck and they would lose money. This would actually stifle digital innovation unlike the record labels would have you believe.

They need to take the boxing gloves off and start fighting for freedom of information on the Internet before it is too late. They have made some moves with the new censorship monitoring tool but they need to do more the media industry already has a head start.
F

REQUEST ALTERNATIVES?
omfg

aprime : zerosec was sold .. scam now

use scnsrc.net
anonymous

until ALL web sites realise that unless they start working together to stop the advance of this entertainment industry disease, there is going to be endless more close downs. the internet is not going to survive the way things are heading and everyone will suffer, including each of the copyright industries as well. trouble is, they are so wrapped up in what they are doing, they cant see the harm to themselves. i do hope that at some time, the idiot behind this control attitude is actually exposed. it had to have been started by a single short sighted fool who then managed to persuade others to follow him. Hitler spring to mind?
wow

What about release blogs like GetTheNew then? They are using download links retrieved from Google search (detailed info on how it works http://bit.ly/5lt89G ).
If blogs like that too are illegal, how the hell is Google legal?
ding

i stopped going to rlslog after i got the antivirus 2010 malware from there once. I swear the web page was infected. is it just me.?
I clicked on the site once and bam…loads of pop ups.
haven’t been back since.
james

yer a get that damm pop up about antivirus 2010 a picturepopos up showing a scan of the pc
okone

Both OneDDL and ScnSrc were the subject of similar threats and both have been relocated.

Rlslog is spam infested anyway, so why use it in the first place?
cb3rob

Bild zeitung servers pulled offline by their hosting company after reporting about a bank robbery.

The banking industry asociation of america filed a complaint that Bild zeitung was informing people of how a bank robbery could be committed.
Rapidbytes

Check http://www.rapidbytes.org for new scene releases !
duane

RapidBytes.. Hmm, is that anything like RabidBites? Btw, Rapidshare could sue you, you know.
critic

rlslog are a buch of lamers.

they are constantly offering webuploaded files (rapidshare, hotfile, younameit….) with blatantly fakefiles, windows-swapfiles, gpl-faketextfiles etc.. just to make these webuploaded archive (rar/zip) files bigger, thus driving their relationship with their webhosting partners and generating them more revenues due to bigger transfersizes etc.

this has been ongoing for many years, and they are just too stupid, claiming that they need to add additional files to these scene release archive files otherwise the webhosters would simply kill/block these files (hashcodes) off their sites.

these maggots simply dont realize that a files hashvalue already changes when there is just one bit difference in filecontents etc.

rlslog ist just a buch of poor retarded moronish lamer wanabes and poor fucktards.

good riddance that they got cut off their idiotic nazigermany hoster.

people who follow the jurisdiction and political news from germany would have never started to do illegal warez hosting business off a german webprovider.

how even more retarded and lame is that.

and now rlslog is wondering why it has been working this far.

sheesh, cant find proper wording for their fuckedupness.

hail to rlslog maggots.

btw: rlslog files stuff is mostly available in cleaned up version on the stealthnet.

check stealthnet anonymous fileexchange network for all your needs.
markwoo345

If you put “A GE” and “MIN GLE” together, then you will get the url.

It’s a nice and free place for Younger- Women and Older Men, or Older Women and Younger Men, to- interact with each other. Maybe you wanna check out or- tell your friends
Trelew

may be operating in the gray area, eh? Unlike when Big Business tells governments what to do behind closed doors! I guess it only illegal unless the corporate powers-that-be says its so.

It’s a sad little world we live in when Big Business corrupts everything for the corporate elite.
anon2

each time a web site is forced off line, it is another victory for the entertainment industry. the problem then arises that they use the number of web site closures to their advantage, insisting that all sites they say are illegal, are illegal. it doesn’t matter that they have behaved in an illegal manner themselves or that they have shut down a legal site. the more sites thay manage to close, the less sites available to fight against them. if google and similar gigantic web companies think they are safe, better start thinking again. soon they will be out on a limb with only one way to go; down the pan with the others! the entertainment industry are just bideing their time. see the progress now to include domain names? be able to close multiple sites with one blow soon.
Afficianado

unbelievable.
r2zv2n

just use scnsrc.net or scenereleases.info….but i want RlsLog back:(
KingSkaFa

Never heard of it before so when it’s back up again i’m going to check it out!
Anonymous

Easy to see why it got taken down, although they didn’t host anything links were posted to just about everything reviewed on there.
adam

I’m simply amazed that they have been using german servers for so long without getting into trouble much sooner,I thought their servers were in Spain or romania where they have loose laws about it. I hope they can find a safehouse in no time.
Anonymous

scnsrc.net had this issue the other week.

http://www.scnsrc.net/site-stuff/were-back/

sign of the times it would seem.
r2zv2n

WHAAAT?…RLSLOG.net is back guys!!!!
RoestVrijStaal

I’m wondering who the German hosting company is.

Everybody must know that this hosting company is not neutral and must be boycotted.
PeeOnMii

It’s up

OrgName: Peer 1 Network Inc.
OrgID: PER1
Address: 75 Broad Street
Address: 2nd Floor
City: New York
StateProv: NY
PostalCode: 10004
Country: US

NetRange: 64.34.0.0 – 64.34.255.255
CIDR: 64.34.0.0/16
NetName: PEER1-BLK-08
NetHandle: NET-64-34-0-0-1
Parent: NET-64-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Allocation
NameServer: NS1.PEER1.NET
NameServer: NS2.PEER1.NET
Relaxion

It’s down again.
Relaxion

Up once again… Hope it remains like this :D
djnforce9

Did they already find a host? It’s still very much up and running for me. I’m on the site now. All download links in tact.
djnforce9

oh wait, I didn’t see PeeOnMii’s post until now. Good stuff! That downtime didn’t last long at all :)
Nutman

@ those saying they got viruses and etc from rlslog. Who the hell uses the internet w/o a popup blocker. Is this your first day using a computer?

I go to rlslog multiple times a day and have never seen a single ad or popup.
Ang3r

rlslog is a bad site, m4rtin is a bad admin, putting adverts for fake gold watches as an article, lol who forgets that?
ALL the previous editors had left because he is greedy as shit.
Ads all over the site…and the shame is, I know the editors work very hard there and give a lot to the site, they ARE the site.
Scnsrc.net i found to be a great site back in the day, lee and shiny are funny fuckers and their editors (also funny guys) work real fuckin hard too.
SCNSRC has no ads, also got taken offline (digital economy bill in britain) and is back up.
Just saying. M4rtin probably paid you to cover this.
credit where its due TF…
RLSLOG founder Martin…

Neuer sicherer Host kein Problem:

1@zionist-swine-corp.info
heh

rlslog is back online
Dave9k

It’s hosted in America now, the best place for link sites!
Wendal

DOWN!
john

Its not back online in the UK……still cannot connect to server.
J

its upp now:)
dwpbike

hollywood is upset that sites are hyping bad movies?
neostyles

There is nothing to question here. Instead of hosting the copyrighted material or .TORRENTS, they just get a 3rd party locker to do it for them. The site is still designed to help users find copyrighted material.

[quote]It’s hosted in America now, the best place for link sites![/quote]
Uhm, after the recent IsoHunt ruling, I wouldn’t say so. Unlike many other countries, we take copyright laws seriously.
YaSs3r37

They were my best source

can’t wait for them
Scene Release Search

tiny url . com / scenesearch
Scene Release Search

Custom Google Scene Search

tiny url . com / scenesearch

Includes 18 different sites
tony

releaselog was up a running for a short period today but is now down again. they have changed the notice on their site

RLSLOG.net was suspended by its German hosting company after removal request from law firm representing Universal Music, although we never hosted any files or copyrighted data on our server. Our site is strictly informative.

We found a new host and moved our site, but it wasn’t powerful enough to handle the site.

We should be back tomorrow on more powerful server.

Check our forums in the meantime: rlstalk.net.
lol

If this continues, it could happen to TF.

Make no mistake, they are out for power.

Do that the industry tells you to do.

Buy what the industry tells you to.

Watch what the industry tells you.

Learn what the industry tells you.

Do not resist.
John

Someone should offer a web proxying service for guys like these, where a company owns, say, 30 servers all around the globe.

These server act as nothing more than proxies for the sites they supply.

Sure, it would introduce an element of latency – but the end result is you could run 100 rlslog type sites, and they could never be shut down. The actual webserver is kept hidden, and if a proxy was taken down by a DCMA, the DNS would simply load-balance without that server.

That’s actually such a good idea i’m going to build it now!
hue

Thanks for the alternatives.
JonnieHayward

heres the biggest rlslog net competitor, in case u need one wit options

http://www.sceneflux.net

^^
JonnieHayward

We found a new host and moved our site, but it wasn’t powerful enough to handle the site.

We should be back tomorrow on more powerful server.

RLS LOG UPDATE ####
SmartestPersons

ha ha
111

wat they dont tell u here is , the reason for the shut down …

IS

thru there file host (hotfile , rapidshare)
they all make millions of dollars together, maybe tens of millions thru link sharing and traffic sharing bc the staff themselves post links to hotfile

which in return pays them 10 bux for every 3000 or so download,

now calculate that wit 400, 000 unique visitors PER post , and u do the math

now add on to wat the “spam” companies pay them so they can place adverts in the comments section thats another 3 k PER fake/replica clothes company

and now u know why there shut down, they make millions and millions of dollars,(so does piratebay) , shutting down for even a few days brings there profits down , RLSLOG is the preimere biggest spot on the net , now that major torrent sites are closing

martin has the power to get u killed wit that much , never has warez releases been so profitable

forget a college degree, bootleg link hosting here i come !
BigM

If they would take the links off altogether and just post the release name and info, it would be a free speech case, because there would be no links. Users could still easily find the torrent or usenet files
CDXX

They should definitely take the links down and let the commentators handle them. Then if they get take down requests, they can remove the offending comments as needed. If they really want the extra profit from rapidshare, then one of the editors should annon post the links in the comments, so that it is not tied directly to the site.
Le Fake

To be totally honest.. what a fucking weak response from the ISP. They should be the ones most loudly protecting their customers rights, free speech and net neutrality and not bow down before big companies in fear.
111

lol without staff links people wont know which link to use cuz alot has spam/virus in it cuz the

“INDUSTRY”
pays anti piracy teams to mess up the links so it will frustrate them into the legal way

without the STAFF links that site will be worthless in a day

they will never STOP posting links directly from staff they make MILLIONS ontop of millions , theres many many and MANY hosts , they get shut down , they simply move, the main dns or name or probably are hosted in countries which allow warez linking.

welcome to 2010
Anonymous

Asking for it. In the past few months there has been far too many music release on this site.
NoName

Saw that coming. In the past few months there has been far too much music release on this site.
111

^ wierd i noticed the same thing

rlslog was turning into a music blog
CDXX

@55
This site has only recently begun to add direct download links. They ran the site for 3 years, only having TPB and a couple of other torrent sites in their links. They make enough money off of the ads because most people are too ignorant to get FF with adb+. And it’s not too hard to scroll through the comments and find the legit links. I haven’t used a staff link in over a year.
German

Who was the German Hoster?
i see you what you did thar..

“hollywood is upset that sites are hyping bad movies?” <—- i loled at that #41, cause its funny..

you d think 'they' would embrace the free advertising of their shite movies.. but no.

i guess i would be mad too, if i realized that i couldnt fool everyone into overpaying for crappy products, but people not enjoying them for free…

but, their attitude is full of fail, so they deserve it.
Mark

I use rsmix.com while RLSLOG is down.Check it out too
Pingback: RLSLOG nach einer Beschwerde von Universal Music offline « Lokalrundes Blog
Anonymous

Hey should move their site to Neutral Datacenters Corp in Canada which is the same company that hosts isoHunt.
L

I read some entries in their forum today and… considering how the blog seems to be a distusting cesspool of advertisements and how the founder uploads all the files somewhere, includes the links with cash-per-download schemes and then conveniently say that the files are hosted elsewhere… I can’t say, I miss it much. I’m sure, the guy will find a possiblity to make cash without profiting from the works of others, be it the artists or the scene groups who attract visitors to rlslog in the first place.

Good riddance.
Matthew

Never even heard of that blog, but the take down was bs
mathew

#7 if thats how they are lookign at this, then surely google and ANY search engine would also be in troulble as they can easily bring up a site with a link to another site with a torrent.
Soundwave (Have a Cigar)

They won’t dare challenge Google in a court, so long as Google complies with their take-down requests.

If they lost in court to Google, they could lose a lot of power in courts, with new precedent being set by the ruling.

Websites without legal muscle are easy targets currently. A loss to Google might jeopardize that.
Soundwave (Have a Cigar)

I should add that I personally wish they would take Google to court, being fairly confident Google would win. I think that the ruling would give Google more freedom and protection.

This protection would also translate to any other website.
Whatever

Telling people where “illegal” things can be found is not illegal but if you add “internet” then it is assistance for some judges. If one were to map all the drug dealers in a city on a site (you can make money from it with ads)the police would still go after drug dealers not the site.

How about information that AK-47′s can be bought in Russia while it is illegal to have a weapon (at least where i live) ? Or information which substances NOT to mix (example: PCB etching) to prevent anyone from accidentally making an explosion or deadly gas because it also tells you at the same time how to create it ?

Where does one draw the line, how (un)specific does the information have to be ?

The next problem with the assisting assumption is that a site linking to some landscape pictures may be guilty of assisting by default at the moment someone replaces the actual pictures with illegal content.

Since a harmless thing like sharing copyrighted files without permission isn’t even a criminal but civil offense in most countries it may end in a police planet.
111

its called “facilitating in copyright infrigement” , remember when people who bought those ” how to murder” people books , not only was the suspects in question also the book publisher bc it facilitates in murder

thats what the industry is challeging in courts today , thats why its so important

to CHALLEGE this bc it is freedom of speach one way ,, but if u look at the front page of rlslog/piratebay and the front page of google…on facilitates or helps in the process of infrigement…

there is no site that is more powerful then the industry , they jus simply shut down the biggest ones, but as the other posts state theres too much money
involved thru link sharing and traffic sharing that make it immosible now to curb it
shafffle

http://www.downloadbox.org is another gud site
Anonymous

“java” problem…xDDD
SceneSite.org

http://scenesite.org/ <- good site if you like download fresh releases from rapidshare :)
Anonymous

Single megaupload links of the latest tv shows:

http://news.seriesgringas.tv/

And fcku Universal Music.
TonyIsBack

Single megaupload links of the latest tv shows:

http://news.seriesgringas.tv/

And fcku Universal Music.
uh no thx

i used to read RLSLOG all the time until their web pages contained malware etc,FF blocked them-anyways good riddence
L

@80 TonyIsBack

WOW! I thought, this site had been dead for ages! (There are only ads usually for a parked domain at the old URls.)

I use private trackers anyway, but it’s good to see seriesgringas alive all of a sudden. :-D
downloader

come and visit http://astatalk.com for fresh and unique downloads news ;)
request what you need
YAYFAGGOTS

Who was the German Hoster?
ANSWER MY QUESTION!!
anonym

RLSLOG.net seems to be back online & working

*kudos*
pete21

its back online
whoo hooo
lolwut

SCNSRC is a fucking joke compared to RLSLOG. Who cares about the ads or who’s the bad guy? Cuz I don’t.

Only thing I do care about is content. The number of releases and the response time. AdBlock takes care about everything else.
booboo

Well that was a waste of time and money.
lol
normal again

ok its back,i checked and the malware seems to be gone,so ill be reading RLSLOG again!!
kimbo_fan33

RLSLOG is full of crappy ads.
much better than RSLLOG ever was is http://tv-dump.org

at least regarding TV
PeeOnMii

NEW!! Up Again

http://www.rlslog.net 89.185.228.40

inetnum: 89.185.228.0 – 89.185.229.255
netname: EXMASTERS2
descr: Fast Internet Web & Server Hosting
country: CZ
admin-c: MK3111-RIPE
tech-c: MK3111-RIPE
status: ASSIGNED PA
mnt-by: MASTER-MNT
source: RIPE
changed: zidek@master.cz 20080124

dex40.exmasters.com
EXMASTERS2
Czech Republic
Pingback: Desconectan a RLSLOG por pedido de Universal Music | Noticortos.com
Anonymous

RLSLOG IS BACK UP AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
dffff

RLSLOG is back …told u ..they will only be down for a few days,,, they keep shutting down but unlike torrent sites RLSLOG will keep coming back from the dead

————–
use adblock wit firefox = rlslog = best
Anonymous

VICTORY

RLSLOG UP ;)
Pingback: RSLOG, costretto a cercare, a causa dell' Universal, un altro host
Bobby

That site gives me viruses anyway. Checked twice.
Pingback: Links 28/4/2010: Fedora 13 Previews, Android Beyond 50,000 Apps | Techrights
xxx

I’m glad those dumbfucks are taken down. Anyone who earns money off things that comes for free should be hanged by the neck in my superior opinion.
Pingback: RKM & Ken-Y, Hector El Father – Down
TORRENTFLICKS

Who was the German Hoster?
ANSWER MY QUESTION!!
Tired…….

I have used Rlslog many times and for a long time.

However the past visits it screwed up my computer and I visited the site just now and BOOM malware again.

This is the 4th time.

Doubt I will use Rlslog again unless they can fix that problem.
Rekrul

@98, Tired…….;

I have used Rlslog many times and for a long time.

However the past visits it screwed up my computer and I visited the site just now and BOOM malware again.

This is the 4th time.

Doubt I will use Rlslog again unless they can fix that problem.

While I agree that sites should make every effort to make sure that their ads don’t try to install malware on visitors’ computers, you should also be taking steps to prevent this sort of thing from your end.

First, install a HOSTS file that blocks all the various advertising sites on the net;

http://www.mvps.org/winhelp2002/hosts.htm

Second, turn off JavaScript whenever you visit RLSLOG. I’d tell you to install NoScript for Firefox, but I had nothing but problems trying to get things like online videos to work while it was active.

Also install AdBlock for Firefox, and if not using NoScript, also install FlashBlock.

Flash and JavaScript aren’t needed on RLSLOG, or on probably 75% of the sites on the net. All they usually do is add useless eye-candy and slow down the loading of pages. Turn them off whenever possible.
rlslogin

me made clone site is rlslog

http://www.rlslog.in
Pingback: Links 1/5/2010: Fedora Kiosk Spin, Many New Sugar-based XOs | Techrights
bigudiliko

????? , ??? ??? ????????? ???? ? ????? ?????, ????? ????.? ??? ? ??????!

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RLSLOG Pulled Offline After Universal Music Complaint

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