Just so users are aware, we were reported to our hosting provider by a notoriously unstable furry who, interestingly enough, goes by 'insane kangaroo', on charges of child pornography.

As you know, we here are big defenders of first amendment rights and artistic freedom, but defending against such charges is notoriously tricky. It's possible that we COULD lose our hosting over this. It's believed that he not only contacted our server provider, but also the owners of the datacenter itself. So there's multiple possible ways for this to go bad.

Here is the email that we received, published because we feel it's of definite interest to our users (with personal information redacted):

===============

Dear Sir or Madam,

I'm writing in regards to a site e621.net hosting child pornography on your servers. I'll include a couple of examples below, but simply going to the site and typing in "child", "kid" or "loli" in the search box will provide materials which are child porn.

Site: http://www.e621.net

An example hosted on Softlayer
Site Link:
http://www.e621.net/post/show/92407/canine-chest_tuft-digimon-elbow_gloves-female-fox-
Where the image is on the server:
http://e621.net/data/sample/11/ea/sample_11ea80b74779864b295292b3e2748526.jpg

An example linked to an account on DreamHost Site Link:
http://e621.net/post/show/90878/animal_ears-blue_hair-braid-brown_eyes-bukkake-cat
Where the image is located:
http://baddragon.e621.inthesewer.net/data/1a/24/1a248331ab929308507a36e784979ac5.jpg

iroo-laptop:~ wolfe$ host e621.net
e621.net has address 173.192.209.70
e621.net mail is handled by 0 aspmx.l.google.com.
iroo-laptop:~ wolfe$ host 173.192.209.70 70.209.192.173.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer 173.192.209.70-static.reverse.softlayer.com.

iroo-laptop:~ wolfe$ host inthesewer.net inthesewer.net has address 69.163.156.53 iroo-laptop:~ wolfe$ host 69.163.156.53 53.156.163.69.in-addr.arpa domain name pointer apache2-snort.hawkman.dreamhost.com.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_status_of_cartoon_pornography_depicting_minors#United_States

Cartoons depicting pornography, even if said child is fictitious, does fall under 18 U.S.C. ?? 1466A Child pornography laws in the Unites States of America.

I'm also request a callback from an individual in legal regarding another matter of the site, gross violations of copyright and the ignoring of takedown notice and DMCA requests from artists. The site KNOWINGLY hosts infringing material.

Sincerely,
David Ross
{redacted}

Scary shit indeed

Hmph. I don't agree with underage stuff, but this is exceptionally underhanded. Did this Ross person even try to contact you guys first?

insane kangaroo is goddamn crazy

So he gets his facts from wikipedia?

Ah, good 'ol iRoo. He can be a major pain in the neck when he's got a hair across his ass... Looks like we're the hair this time.

Tread carefully with this one Arc. He reads into laws like they are religious tomes. He can be very difficult to negotiate with, and if he manages to get the host involved....

Own'd.

Why are stupid faggots dumb as fucking shit? It pisses me off when people take a law that was meant for good, and fuck it to death. It said depiction of a child, real or fictitious. People tend to forget that these pictures aren't depicting children, they're depicting what an artist was thinking at the time when he decided to draw porn. And he mentioned some shit about infringing a copyright. What copyright is being infringed upon? None. E621 claims none of the images that are hosted here, so we aren't infringing shit. This is why I hate other furries, other christians, and bitch-ass republicans.

Ultima_Weapon said:
Why are stupid faggots dumb as fucking shit? It pisses me off when people take a law that was meant for good, and fuck it to death. It said depiction of a child, real or fictitious. People tend to forget that these pictures aren't depicting children, they're depicting what an artist was thinking at the time when he decided to draw porn. And he mentioned some shit about infringing a copyright. What copyright is being infringed upon? None. E621 claims none of the images that are hosted here, so we aren't infringing shit. This is why I hate other furries, other christians, and bitch-ass republicans.

Ditto.

haha http://e621.net/user/show/10085

machfennec said:
haha http://e621.net/user/show/10085

Haha, what a failfag.

The enemies of free speech are watching us, be wary, soldiers!

Sept. 04, 2010 11:47 pm

New administration beta test

Sept. 08, 2010 10:45 am

Another beta test... I personally can't see any thumbnails or images... But at least its working =)

Upon further inspection some work and some don't... It seems like past a certain size they don't work.

Even is said child is fictitious?! The fuck is that shit? No children are being exploited or harmed. Where's the line? If someone draws a stick figure with a penis and writes TEN YEAR OLD under it, is that illegal? For fuck sake.

Child porn is bad, yes. But FICTITIOUS child porn is getting us in trouble? Really!? And the copyright infringements... look up Fair Use and you will agree that that argument is null and void. *Facepalm* Come on people!

On a lighter note, I am thrilled that e621 is back. I was kinda bummed when it went down, and now that it's back, I'm gonna support it more than ever! Long Live e621!

Well apparently we've lasted nine days so far, most likely more seeing as this news wasn't posted instantly as it happened, so my feelings are leaning towards we're safe. But the law is full of slow idiotic people, so they may just be waiting for their brains to turn on and compute.

Has anyone been able to get a copy of the e621 website downloaded? I've wanted to do it for awhile but I won't with how easily overloaded the server can get. Honestly I wouldn't even use it for personal use. I'd upload the entire thing to TPB if e621 did ever go down and hope it lands in the right hands that could help this site live on.

Someone did seed a torrent claiming to be a full site rip way back in 2009, but that has long since gone inactive and is no longer available.

ippiki_ookami said:
Even is said child is fictitious?! The fuck is that shit? No children are being exploited or harmed. Where's the line? If someone draws a stick figure with a penis and writes TEN YEAR OLD under it, is that illegal? For fuck sake.

Yep, it's one of those "victimless crimes" that are only proposed for moral reason. Instead of going after people commiting actual crimes like murder, people put their puritan glasses on and go after cartoon child porn with a vengeance, while I could easily kill someone, and people really wouldn't give that much of a shit.

WaffleSteel! said:
Someone did seed a torrent claiming to be a full site rip way back in 2009, but that has long since gone inactive and is no longer available.

No longer available? Search "e621" on The Pirate Bay, it'll be the only result. Took two days to download it, but I've decided to seed it to help others who are interested. Alternatively, you can just download it here: http://ftp.mobianlegends.com/yiff/e621rescue/www.e621.net/siterip/

here is my thought. (i havent read all the responses.)

when it comes to real life, age is absolute. when it comes to art, it's impossible to tell. especially with that "age regress" fetish. in mind they'd be 21, but their body looks younger.

i'm kind of rambling here, but the issue with younger children, and sexual stuff, is that they have no say in the matter, and there are certain risks when they get older. in art, they are old enough mentally to make their own decisions. and there can be no risk later.