Onion Domain

bakertaylor28

Seriously, has the owner of this site considered mirroring it as a tor hidden service? (.onion domain)? Given the fact that with that kind of technology, the server as well as the user remains anonymous, it would seem that the forum would benefit greatly from this, as it would make certain companies think twice before abusing things like DMCA to try to shut sites like these down. See torproject.org for more info on the subject.

Plokite_Wolf

bakertaylor28 wrote:

as it would make certain companies think twice before abusing things like DMCA to try to shut sites like these down

Using Tor/Onion won't make companies magically stay away from the site.

jamie1130

Why would a site like WinWorld consider converting to a Tor website? That would make it harder for the end user to navigate to the site and use it. Also, why would they want to do stuff that is illegal just because they're flying under the radar? They aren't promoting illegal activities as it is and always have turned away from such things.

1607

Just use Tor to browse WinWorld with the current domain... not the best solution but provides some anonymity.

Bry89

When I think of Tor, I think of these sites that people have to go on to as instructed by something called ransomware. Also, this site will survive for all eternity as long as certain software don't make their way here (*cough* Windows XP *cough*).

1607

Bry89 wrote:

When I think of Tor, I think of these sites that people have to go on to as instructed by something called ransomware.

There's other uses for Tor, more than just ransomeware. Not everything on Tor is illegal, not everything is morally / legally dodgy, not everything is malware.

Those ransomware sites use Tor for a good reason, but there are many uses, not all of them illegal. It's like saying you shouldn't use the internet as when you think of it you think of viruses.

dosbox

I think it's kind of pointless to have this site on Tor to be honest.

jamie1130 wrote:

Also, why would they want to do stuff that is illegal just because they're flying under the radar?

Explain what you mean? Running a Tor Hidden Service isn't illegal at all.

jamie1130

dosbox wrote:

I think it's kind of pointless to have this site on Tor to be honest.

jamie1130 wrote:

Also, why would they want to do stuff that is illegal just because they're flying under the radar?

Explain what you mean? Running a Tor Hidden Service isn't illegal at all.

What I mean is that the original poster gives the impression that they want WinWorld to host files that they would get in trouble for. I know hosting a Tor service isn't illegal, it's just what I got the impression of when I first read the post. That is how it seems to me, unless they reply and say otherwise.

SomeGuy

Winworld doesn't need to hide anything. If we did, we might use something like a private FTP that only contributing members could get access to... with encryption... and locked to your IP address... and terabytes of Windows tehn betuhs :P

Remember, Winworld is mostly a museum that showcases old/abandoned/vintage software products for the entire world to see. It's not a warez site or anything like that.

birdy

I would love to know how to get an actual site working in the tor sphere. Although you run along a shit ton of security risks and brute force attacks, as I might imagine and read from other sites. Although I don't think Winworld would ever need something like this. That and I'm 99.999% sure that it isn't recommended downloading from the tor browser... Or network for that matter.

Running a tor site isn't illegal, its what most people do on tor that is illegal. Just like how making a: http(s) web site, a gopher page, & telnet server isn't illegal. Some people abuse it, while others simply go about doing legitimate things.

stitch

The thing is that nobody is really abusing DMCA to have things removed from our site. We have been served with 3 DMCA's within the last 10 years and have complied with them all. This is not the problem that you think it is.

We operate a legitimate operation that provides a public educational service; there's nothing to hide in our operations. Everything besides the downloads itself, including the library listing and forum access is over SSL with perfect forward secrecy configured so there's no snooping ongoing. With that said we have no need to hide who we are or what we're doing like "warez" sites need to. This is perfectly accessible over the Tor network through https://winworldpc.com like it is through the regular Internet if any specific users feel a need to access via Tor.

bakertaylor28

The point of using a hidden service isn't so much in doing something illegal. The hidden service has been used by a few mainstream websites. Facebook being one of them. They are gradually becoming a mainstream technology. While I know this site concerns itself with Abandonware- the fact that something is abandonware doesn't automatically absolve one from copyright issues, UNLESS the copyright holder has officially released to the copyright into the public domain. Notably, Microsoft has pretty much refused to do this to my knowledge. The only reason i suggested the idea was because of the fact that I took note when reading the history of the site that there had been problems with finding hosting providers, service providers, etc. The onion effectively solves that solution- There IS NO service provider other than an ISP- whom usually cannot be subjected to DMCA.

i'm also NOT talking about switching the entire domain over to .onion domain- rather I'm talking about mirroring the server as an onion server. The effectiveness of the point is that when companies like Microsoft that like to try to DMCA everything they possibly can and then some more- it falls that when they see that someone has an onion server up, they think twice before wasting their time- because their only path to putting out the notice is by attacking Tor. (A notoriously difficult thing to do,)

Frankly, I think sites like this do a good service- preserving obsolete software is a good idea, Not to mention the fact that it increases productivity. There are a lot of applications out there that WILL NOT run on a 7 or 8 system, and frankly I hate these versions of windows with a passion. i would hate to see it being jacked with because of the corporate buffoons at Microsoft et al.

thinkpadman

stitch wrote:

The thing is that nobody is really abusing DMCA to have things removed from our site. We have been served with 3 DMCA's within the last 10 years and have complied with them all.

Out of curiousity, what were the three to get this? Hosting Office 2000 I recall being one of them.

Bry89

thinkpadman wrote:

stitch wrote:

The thing is that nobody is really abusing DMCA to have things removed from our site. We have been served with 3 DMCA's within the last 10 years and have complied with them all.

Out of curiousity, what were the three to get this? Hosting Office 2000 I recall being one of them.

Maybe the serials thread also, until the new one was posted. I do recall that had captured their attention.

SomeGuy

I think the original question has been sufficiently answered.