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The Truth About DMCA and Moldova
I don’t get why everyone thinks Moldova is some kind of safe haven for ignoring DMCA. They actually have copyright laws too. I’m bringing this up because I noticed that most hosting companies selling so-called DMCA-ignored VPS/servers are based in Moldova. So doesn’t that make Russia a “better” option at this point?
Moldova actually has its own copyright legislation. The most recent one is Law No. 230 on Copyright and Related Rights, adopted in July 2022, which aligns with EU directives. It regulates online services that host user-generated content and sets rules for copyright enforcement. So it’s not really a “DMCA-free” zone as many people assume.
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Very strict legislation is compensated by non-mandatory nature
Yeah, but at the end of the day the law is still the law. “Non-mandatory” doesn’t mean it disappears. All it takes is the right lawyer or the wrong case, and suddenly those servers in Moldova don’t look so “safe” anymore.
It's more a question of how consistently they enforce the laws, but yes, especially if they have the goal of joining the EU at some point, Moldova slowly will no longer be viewed as a safe haven for ignoring DMCA
My opinion is that it's not safe at all for DMCA since they have a law related to that ( Law No. 230 on Copyright and Related Rights).
but dmca is a USA law
Yeah Moldova definitely isn't safe now. They already agreed to cooperate with other governments and rightsholders.
https://torrentfreak.com/ace-dazn-shut-down-a-major-sports-piracy-site-in-dmca-ignored-country-250910/
No sane regular citizen would go risk his freedom to be extradited to us. (countries like romania, moldova, etc. this is not russia/china or israel(?) )
Those companies are state actors that make cash from shady businesses with fake identity holders.
Eastern Europe is a very interesting place, the way it works is slightly different.
You are right, you can see that all DMCA ignored hosting companies use servers in Moldova. Isn't Russia a better place now? Russia or North Korea.
In Eastern Europe, things may work a bit differently, but the law is the law ,those who understand it and have a good lawyer know their rights and obligations.
The DMCA "experts" here are getting a bit tiring. The thing is, almost no country is "DMCA safe". Certainly not anywhere in Europe, not the Netherlands, not callins basement in Romania, and not Moldova either.
The trick of "DMCA-ignored hosting" is simply that: ignoring DMCA requests. And you can do that just as easily in the Netherlands, Germany, Romania, or Moldova.
Is it legal? Absolutely not. In all of these countries, providers are legally required to act once they've been notified of illegal or infringing content. If they don't, they themselves can be held liable. No court order is needed; once a provider is informed, they're expected to take action.
That said, copyright holders rarely go after small or obscure hosting providers. Your site is usually just one of thousands, and the provider is one of thousands too. The financial risk and effort for rights holders to chase them in court is not really attractive, and even if they succeed, the site usually just jumps to another provider anyway.
The story might change when it comes to big, well-known sites, but I guess nobody of us runs TPB
Funny.
All of the places where lenient hosts are based have copyright laws and most have signed international treaties. It is just some companies and upstreams which turn a blind eye as long as the customer is not causing big issues.
The only notorious exception would be Iran, which really has not signed many significant international treaties and does not enforce them for foreign works.
You won't find any servers in North Korea, at least not ones that any of us could rent.
Russia might currently be a favorable location for piracy, since the government is unlikely to prioritize enforcing western copyrights. However, hosting there comes with its own set of issues I guess.
North Korea: Kim Jong Un and his right-hand men have access to the internet. Everyone else is offline.
I don't understand why these hoster providers "target" Moldova when Moldova is not safe for DMCA.
Only Iran and Russia remain.
Who knows, but last I heard it was powered by a Hal 9000.
This is it:
There is honestly barely any other reason to get a server in Moldova.
So that became their main selling point.
Also, many here still have the believe that everything in eastern Europe is lawless land or something like that.
@Alyx is absolutely correct. Physical location has naught to do with DMCA policies, etc. Especially if the ASN isn’t from the same country as the physical location, because you are basically muddying the waters — or rather, jurisdiction becomes a big question… and it’s not like most people will look for the physical location… but, even if they do, datacenter just might be fully innocent of any wrongdoing… so whether you host in Moldova or in Germany — resistance is measured by the extent of the exposure of the operator(s) and their liabilities, but not much else.
You can have someone safely running their stuff through .de — just look at Aeza and many other companies, too… but, if you go with some random hosting that jumped on the “DMCA Ignore” bandwagon, and proclaims their country to be the right jurisdiction, you just have to be aware that it’s probably just marketing spiel, and that it won’t work if they get a large customer… but that’s the thing, though… they don’t want big customers, they want as many “noob” customers as possible, whose websites don’t even generate traffic, and therefore, cause no issues to them, legal or otherwise.
But, like it was said before… physical location = doesn’t matter. How you execute the entire plan has a lot more to do with it. For example, say your servers are with some random GmbH, and you also run a GmbH — people can look your name up, find out everything about you, and push you hard to comply.
Datacenter doesn’t necessarily have to do anything, but if you fully exposed yourself, then the chances are that it won’t be bulletproof… whether it’s advertised as Moldova, or Ukraine… whatever, it still won’t be bulletproof.
For example, vsys is definitely not anywhere near safe. I personally know of at least a few people who got booted from vsys, and while it’s generally fine, I still think people shouldn’t advertise “DMCA Ignore” unless they are prepared to go all the way in and just ignore it — consequences be damned. I kicked people for various things, but never for complaints. It’s always best to be upfront with customers about everything, but especially AUP violations, etc. I wouldn’t want to host someone if I can’t handle the heat, and if I’m going to suspend them a month later… just a waste of everyone’s time and effort.
It's marketing bullshit, who doesn't know that? Wait til you find out about "unlimited" and "lifetime"!
I agree... If you want to fly under the radar, go with the Netherlands. Sad but true, you can get away with so much shit, if executed right .
You’re right, and we also wonder why so many focus on Moldova.
DMCA is a big pain!
DMCA complaints can turn into cease cases too!
It depends if the hosting company owns the IP ranges or not!
for example if leasing you will have to take action within 24~48 hours else subnet will be taken offline!
Most providers will keep changing server IPs.
i
.. but the VPS IP remains the same.
yea there are plenty of providers in NL that can serve this purpose already. Why use some random server in Eastern Europe with poor connectivity. When you have NL with excellent connectivity around the world that can serve your DMCA content.
They’re cumming over Moldova and they think there is lawlessness there.
DMCA historically used as a standard letter to confirm that the representative of the author has the right to claim that the recipient's copyright has been violated.
This, of course, does not mean that anyone in the world signs or accepts DMCA law terms. It is only American law. In most countries, their own legislation about copyright exists.
We follow our legislation, and according to it, the author has the right to disallow/allow the use of their copyrighted materials. The author can be an individual or a corporation, it doesn't matter.
In the US, copyright issues are usually handled under the DMCA.
In Moldova, the equivalent of the DMCA is called the Law No. 230 of July 28, 2022, on Copyright and Neighboring Rights.
EDIT:
So those who brag about being “Moldova located” as some kind of “DMCA ignore” that doesn’t really hold up.
You can see more here:
https://www.wipo.int/wipolex/en/legislation/details/21987
This post is very silly. Copyright laws exist in almost every country and most countries are signatory to WIPO treaties.
However, there are countries who have MUCH bigger problems than some guys warez forum and there are countries where a few hundred euros make a lot of legal problems go away. That's usually where "DMCA free" hosts end up being located.
There are also some countries now that have no legal representation of major copyright holders (all of which are in the US). Those can be helpful too.
Of course as others have said, if you're a host, you can just ignore them, and unless you're really massive - nothing will happen. Most hosts can hide behind a weak shield of an anonymous company who owns the assets/IPs to delay the inevitable longer. Unless you host some massive 1,000,000+ user site, nobody really cares.
DMCA is a US law. It has many provisions, but the most relevant here is the takedown process. Basically:
*The hosting company is not held liable for the content of their users
* If they receive a valid takedown notice (with certain verbiage, etc) they MUST remove the content in order to keep their immunity
* If they then receive a counternotice (such as the customer claiming the takedown notice is wrong) they MUST restore it. But the responsibility lies now on whoever sent the counternotice, the next step would be to sue that person in US court.
Hosting companies don't need to obey DMCA notices. Not even US-based ones. However, it provides a big legal advantage, as otherwise they could be sued for the content of their users, so all US company will pay attention to them. Some companies will actually review those they receive, and disregard some of them (bogus claims are not uncommon), while others will act on each of them.
Non-US companies have even less incentive. The law it matters for them is their local one. So if they receive a DMCA claim, they can decide to act it (since pretty much any ToU states that you must not use their services for anything illegal illegal) or ignore it (and let the requesting lawyer send a proper request according to their local jurisdiction).