11 ms·

Wow, the website of his hosting company[1] is, eh, extremly honest: > Further, as Kosovo is an extremely corrupt country, we are able to bribe both executive a

Wow, the website of his hosting company[1] is, eh, extremly honest: > Further, as Kosovo is an extremely corrupt country, we are able to bribe both executive and judicative as well as getting information about court orders and raids before execution, enabling us to move servers out of the affected location, protecting our clients in any situation. Our excellent Serbian connections enable us to also move servers cross-border and play "ping pong" between both countries, essentially keeping content online forever. [1] https://basehost.eu/ https://basehost.eu/

decremental 3y ago
[dead]
lo_zamoyski 3y ago
Wouldn't full disclosure make them, in some sense, honest? Also, you have just condemned entire nations of people, like those who lived under Soviet domination, where bribery became custom, because if you wanted to accomplish anything, you had to bribe the people involved. Just got married and want an apartment for your new family? You could submit a housing application, but it might bubble up to the top of the queue by the time you hit retirement. A bribe given to the woman in the office handling the paperwork can help grease the track. Have a totally curable disease that, without intervention, can kill you? Well, you could have your name added to a long wait list and have your treatment started next year, or you could "gift" your state-pensioned doctor a cognac, some luxury chocolates, and an envelop containing a "tip" to shorten the wait time. Need to travel abroad? Well, guess what. The passport stays with the government for "safe keeping". They might not be in a hurry to let you leave, just yet. However, with a few enticing arrangements and exchanges, you'll be on the next plane headed over the Iron Curtain. In other words, I'm not convinced bribes are a categorically wrong thing for someone to offer. To receive, on the other hand...
- barrysteve 3y ago
  He condemned accurately. The soviet system sounds pointlessly overloaded with middle men. Why not abandon the "official system with middle men bribes" and descend all the way into mafia families and protection rackets? No matter the empathy I have for the suffering. What is the point of offering a bribe, to bully the system, in the same way the receiver intends to break the rules? Just tell the truth and say the system sucks. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours done en masse, hardens society for everyone and then you have to bribe, like the Soviets did.
  - ClumsyPilot 3y ago
    > What is the point of offering a bribe, to bully the system Imagine your grandma needs urgent surgery and it is customary to give the doctor some money to 'ensure best results'. Will you refuse? > descend all the way into mafia families and protection rackets? You mean like some monopolized industries in the US have done? > then you have to bribe, like the Soviets did. Why Soviets, Bribing is the default way of society - Imperial Russia has no concept of bribery, if you wanted a government official to do their job, you had to pay them, and they set the price, thats just how the system worked. Victorian britain was insanely corrupt too. Absence of corruption is unusual.
    - barrysteve 3y ago
      It is not a binary choice. My grandma can get the care via a bribe and the next day I can go join the local mafia. Not like a US corporation, the machine of machines, systems of systems. An actual mafia that breaks down the government and replaces official services with a protection racket around people's families and uses physical violence to enforce arbitrary mafia business norms. The real criminal mafia does not answer to a doctor who takes the wrong bribes and that doctor may go home that evening to find his house/family/prized thing to be in jeopardy. The mafia built on family and religious connections that can't be bought out, and will balance out a non-working government when it fails. The Soviet system props up the normal structure just enough to leech off it. That is a luxury of Russian culture that doesn't survive elsewhere, for very good reason. Suffering isn't an excuse for corruption that hurts basic services for the middle/lower class. Lie, bribe, cheat and steal for all the yacht money and control over steel mills, between upper class toffs, I don't care. When your corruption stops society from working for the majority, or oppresses the majority, then you have become the problem.
  - sofixa 3y ago
    > The soviet system sounds pointlessly overloaded with middle men I find this conclusion hilarious (if not untrue) - you can say absolutely the same for the USA system. So many things require a useless middleman that only takes their cut and adds friction - car dealerships, "value added" resellers, health insurance, etc.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
catsarebetter 3y ago
That is a scary amount of honesty, but for a good cause this time so good on them
andreareina 3y ago
Run by a cousin of Honest Achmed[1] maybe [1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=647959 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=647959
asimeqi 3y ago
Seems this hosting company is a scam. Kosovo might be corrupted but it is the country with the highest approval of U.S. government. The FBI can investigate and arrest you in Kosovo just as easily as they can arrest you in Maine. Probably even easier because in Kosovo you don't have same judicial guarantees as in the U.S.A.
npsomaratna 3y ago
This isn't a parody, right? I mean, surely no-one would (seriously) say this in public in real life? Right?
- yankput 3y ago
  The Serbian community in Kosovo kind of ignores all laws. Up until recently they basically had free/stolem electricity and they used it to mine bitcoin for free.
- martin1975 3y ago
  It's not. I come from that area. He's telling the truth.
  - zgluck 3y ago
    Yes. That is also why we need to keep Kosovo out of the EU until this has been fixed - which I'm pretty sure won't happen any time soon :(.
    - yankput 3y ago
      Well we first need to fix the tensions with Serbia, which is impossible.
    - CSMastermind 3y ago
      I've heard similar things about Romania and Bulgaria which are both EU countries.
      - izacus 3y ago
        Plenty of things are "heard" with dubious truthfulness.
        smcin 3y ago
        Corruption Perceptions Index data has been documenting this for decades: * 2000: Bulgaria 3.5/10, Romania 2.9/10 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2000 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2000 * 2007: Bulgaria 4.1/10, Romania 3.7/10 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2007 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2007 * 2013: Bulgaria 41/100, Romania 43/100 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2013 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2013 * 2022: Bulgaria 43/100, Romania 46/100, Western Europe and EU average: 66 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2022 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2022 "2022 Corruption Perceptions Index Reveals Undue Influence And Fragmented Anti-Corruption Efforts Threaten Progress In Western Europe & EU": https://www.transparency.org/en/press/2022-corruption-perceptions-index-reveals-undue-influence-fragmented-anticorruption-threaten-progress-western-europe-eu https://www.transparency.org/en/press/2022-corruption-percep...
dtx1 3y ago
They should rename themselves to basedhost after that statement
- KingLancelot 3y ago
  [dead]
Wowfunhappy 3y ago
> Further, as Kosovo is an extremely corrupt country, we are able to bribe both executive and judicative as well as getting information about court orders and raids before execution. What happens if someone else is willing to pay a higher bribe than you are...?
- atmosx 3y ago
  No more ping-pong...
- coldtea 3y ago
  Or if the order comes with strong pressure from the mafia or the government, and it's not ammenable to a bribe-override?
- bell-cot 3y ago
  Competent corrupt officials can do the math, and understand ongoing 1X bribes are far better than poisoning their money tree by stupidly accepting a one-time 10X bribe.
  - moonchrome 3y ago
    In a volatile place covering for illegal thing that can bite you in the ass - you'll take the payout, gain political points by cooperating with some agency and spin yourself as a hero in the case.
    - lazide 3y ago
      ‘I’m shocked, shocked! that gambling is going on here!’
  - aleph_minus_one 3y ago
    > understand ongoing 1X bribes are far better than poisoning their money tree by stupidly accepting a one-time 10X bribe. Relevant concept: Present Value of Future Cashflows (see for example https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/presentvalue.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/presentvalue.asp).
abwizz 3y ago
could be targeted marketing essentially saying "don't worry, it'll be fine"
iudqnolq 3y ago
Not necessarily. Making that statement, setting up in a country that has enough issues to make it plausible, and then not paying the bribe would also make a lot of sense. See also: no log VPNs that actually were logging. Worst case scenario they shut down, collaborate fully with the police and keep all the profits up til then. Better case scenario they make a deal with the police and keep operating and making profits while covertly providing assistance. Best case scenario the issue never comes up and they make all the profits without having to spend those expenses. My impression is that in this kind of shady web hosting the companies never last that long so you wouldn't want to invest a lot in bribes and multiple data centers and so on when you could lie and make short term profit. Note also that corruption isn't a boolean flag. First off the cop make take the exact same strategy: take your money, do nothing else, and hope their boss never gets interested in you while planning not to protect you if anything comes up. Furthermore there are all sorts of anticorruption efforts in that area linked to US aid. That doesn't mean there isn't corruption, it does mean that if a major US corp works with the FBI in a major investigation the local police may rather piss you off than lose critical aid funding.
- sillysaurusx 3y ago
  Which vpn was no-log-but-logging? I was shopping around for an alternative after mullvad blocked port forwarding, but it seems like no one else is as trustworthy. Not that I need it for my “attempt to port forward smash ultimate from within crummy hospital internet” purposes, but hey, principle of the thing and all that.
  - julesallen 3y ago
    You might like iVPN.net, been using them for years. A little more money but solid support and mission.
  - foobiekr 3y ago
    All of them.
    - trogdor 3y ago
nullbyte808 3y ago
Found his email via reverse ip: me@william.co.il https://rdns.im https://rdns.im https://prnt.li https://prnt.li https://william.co.il https://william.co.il https://whois.domaintools.com/basehost.eu https://whois.domaintools.com/basehost.eu

decremental 3y ago

[dead]

lo_zamoyski 3y ago

Wouldn't full disclosure make them, in some sense, honest? Also, you have just condemned entire nations of people, like those who lived under Soviet domination, where bribery became custom, because if you wanted to accomplish anything, you had to bribe the people involved. Just got married and want an apartment for your new family? You could submit a housing application, but it might bubble up to the top of the queue by the time you hit retirement. A bribe given to the woman in the office handling the paperwork can help grease the track. Have a totally curable disease that, without intervention, can kill you? Well, you could have your name added to a long wait list and have your treatment started next year, or you could "gift" your state-pensioned doctor a cognac, some luxury chocolates, and an envelop containing a "tip" to shorten the wait time. Need to travel abroad? Well, guess what. The passport stays with the government for "safe keeping". They might not be in a hurry to let you leave, just yet. However, with a few enticing arrangements and exchanges, you'll be on the next plane headed over the Iron Curtain. In other words, I'm not convinced bribes are a categorically wrong thing for someone to offer. To receive, on the other hand...

barrysteve 3y ago
He condemned accurately. The soviet system sounds pointlessly overloaded with middle men. Why not abandon the "official system with middle men bribes" and descend all the way into mafia families and protection rackets? No matter the empathy I have for the suffering. What is the point of offering a bribe, to bully the system, in the same way the receiver intends to break the rules? Just tell the truth and say the system sucks. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours done en masse, hardens society for everyone and then you have to bribe, like the Soviets did.
- ClumsyPilot 3y ago
  > What is the point of offering a bribe, to bully the system Imagine your grandma needs urgent surgery and it is customary to give the doctor some money to 'ensure best results'. Will you refuse? > descend all the way into mafia families and protection rackets? You mean like some monopolized industries in the US have done? > then you have to bribe, like the Soviets did. Why Soviets, Bribing is the default way of society - Imperial Russia has no concept of bribery, if you wanted a government official to do their job, you had to pay them, and they set the price, thats just how the system worked. Victorian britain was insanely corrupt too. Absence of corruption is unusual.
  - barrysteve 3y ago
    It is not a binary choice. My grandma can get the care via a bribe and the next day I can go join the local mafia. Not like a US corporation, the machine of machines, systems of systems. An actual mafia that breaks down the government and replaces official services with a protection racket around people's families and uses physical violence to enforce arbitrary mafia business norms. The real criminal mafia does not answer to a doctor who takes the wrong bribes and that doctor may go home that evening to find his house/family/prized thing to be in jeopardy. The mafia built on family and religious connections that can't be bought out, and will balance out a non-working government when it fails. The Soviet system props up the normal structure just enough to leech off it. That is a luxury of Russian culture that doesn't survive elsewhere, for very good reason. Suffering isn't an excuse for corruption that hurts basic services for the middle/lower class. Lie, bribe, cheat and steal for all the yacht money and control over steel mills, between upper class toffs, I don't care. When your corruption stops society from working for the majority, or oppresses the majority, then you have become the problem.
- sofixa 3y ago
  > The soviet system sounds pointlessly overloaded with middle men I find this conclusion hilarious (if not untrue) - you can say absolutely the same for the USA system. So many things require a useless middleman that only takes their cut and adds friction - car dealerships, "value added" resellers, health insurance, etc.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

catsarebetter 3y ago

That is a scary amount of honesty, but for a good cause this time so good on them

andreareina 3y ago

Run by a cousin of Honest Achmed[1] maybe [1] https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=647959 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=647959

asimeqi 3y ago

Seems this hosting company is a scam. Kosovo might be corrupted but it is the country with the highest approval of U.S. government. The FBI can investigate and arrest you in Kosovo just as easily as they can arrest you in Maine. Probably even easier because in Kosovo you don't have same judicial guarantees as in the U.S.A.

npsomaratna 3y ago

This isn't a parody, right? I mean, surely no-one would (seriously) say this in public in real life? Right?

yankput 3y ago
The Serbian community in Kosovo kind of ignores all laws. Up until recently they basically had free/stolem electricity and they used it to mine bitcoin for free.
martin1975 3y ago
It's not. I come from that area. He's telling the truth.
- zgluck 3y ago
  Yes. That is also why we need to keep Kosovo out of the EU until this has been fixed - which I'm pretty sure won't happen any time soon :(.
  - yankput 3y ago
    Well we first need to fix the tensions with Serbia, which is impossible.
  - CSMastermind 3y ago
    I've heard similar things about Romania and Bulgaria which are both EU countries.
    - izacus 3y ago
      Plenty of things are "heard" with dubious truthfulness.
      - smcin 3y ago
        Corruption Perceptions Index data has been documenting this for decades: * 2000: Bulgaria 3.5/10, Romania 2.9/10 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2000 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2000 * 2007: Bulgaria 4.1/10, Romania 3.7/10 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2007 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2007 * 2013: Bulgaria 41/100, Romania 43/100 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2013 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2013 * 2022: Bulgaria 43/100, Romania 46/100, Western Europe and EU average: 66 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2022 https://www.transparency.org/en/cpi/2022 "2022 Corruption Perceptions Index Reveals Undue Influence And Fragmented Anti-Corruption Efforts Threaten Progress In Western Europe & EU": https://www.transparency.org/en/press/2022-corruption-perceptions-index-reveals-undue-influence-fragmented-anticorruption-threaten-progress-western-europe-eu https://www.transparency.org/en/press/2022-corruption-percep...

dtx1 3y ago

They should rename themselves to basedhost after that statement

KingLancelot 3y ago
[dead]

Wowfunhappy 3y ago

> Further, as Kosovo is an extremely corrupt country, we are able to bribe both executive and judicative as well as getting information about court orders and raids before execution. What happens if someone else is willing to pay a higher bribe than you are...?

atmosx 3y ago
No more ping-pong...
coldtea 3y ago
Or if the order comes with strong pressure from the mafia or the government, and it's not ammenable to a bribe-override?
bell-cot 3y ago
Competent corrupt officials can do the math, and understand ongoing 1X bribes are far better than poisoning their money tree by stupidly accepting a one-time 10X bribe.
- moonchrome 3y ago
  In a volatile place covering for illegal thing that can bite you in the ass - you'll take the payout, gain political points by cooperating with some agency and spin yourself as a hero in the case.
  - lazide 3y ago
    ‘I’m shocked, shocked! that gambling is going on here!’
- aleph_minus_one 3y ago
  > understand ongoing 1X bribes are far better than poisoning their money tree by stupidly accepting a one-time 10X bribe. Relevant concept: Present Value of Future Cashflows (see for example https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/presentvalue.asp https://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/presentvalue.asp).

abwizz 3y ago

could be targeted marketing essentially saying "don't worry, it'll be fine"

iudqnolq 3y ago

Not necessarily. Making that statement, setting up in a country that has enough issues to make it plausible, and then not paying the bribe would also make a lot of sense. See also: no log VPNs that actually were logging. Worst case scenario they shut down, collaborate fully with the police and keep all the profits up til then. Better case scenario they make a deal with the police and keep operating and making profits while covertly providing assistance. Best case scenario the issue never comes up and they make all the profits without having to spend those expenses. My impression is that in this kind of shady web hosting the companies never last that long so you wouldn't want to invest a lot in bribes and multiple data centers and so on when you could lie and make short term profit. Note also that corruption isn't a boolean flag. First off the cop make take the exact same strategy: take your money, do nothing else, and hope their boss never gets interested in you while planning not to protect you if anything comes up. Furthermore there are all sorts of anticorruption efforts in that area linked to US aid. That doesn't mean there isn't corruption, it does mean that if a major US corp works with the FBI in a major investigation the local police may rather piss you off than lose critical aid funding.

sillysaurusx 3y ago
Which vpn was no-log-but-logging? I was shopping around for an alternative after mullvad blocked port forwarding, but it seems like no one else is as trustworthy. Not that I need it for my “attempt to port forward smash ultimate from within crummy hospital internet” purposes, but hey, principle of the thing and all that.
- julesallen 3y ago
  You might like iVPN.net, been using them for years. A little more money but solid support and mission.
- foobiekr 3y ago
  All of them.
  - trogdor 3y ago

nullbyte808 3y ago

Found his email via reverse ip: me@william.co.il https://rdns.im https://rdns.im https://prnt.li https://prnt.li https://william.co.il https://william.co.il https://whois.domaintools.com/basehost.eu https://whois.domaintools.com/basehost.eu