Russian Pirates Offer To Host NASA's Website While US Government Is Shutdown

from the adopt-a-us-gov't-webiste dept

Mon, Oct 7th 2013 3:01pm — Mike Masnick

The government shutdown leading to various government websites being taken offline has been the subject of much mocking. But, for people who rely on those websites, it can be quite a nuisance. So perhaps it's time to start an "adopt a federal website" program, where others are willing to host the downed websites until such time as the government gets its act together. It appears that the Russian Pirate Party has kicked all this off by offering to host NASA's downed website. The full statement on the party's website is somewhat amusing:

To NASA, USA
from Pirate Party of Russia

Dear Madame/Sir,

We do care about the situation around your web site and the budget crisis in USA. Thereby we would like to offer you bulletproof collocation or dedicated servers on our hosting platform till the end of the crisis. We stand for Internet privacy, and as the result you would not have to worry about programs such as PRISM and other illegal activities of secret services of different countries. Your traffic, your activity and the activity of your users will be in safety.

We love Mars!

Perhaps we can set up an crowdfunding campaign to get this kind of thing moving.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: government shutdown, pirate party, russia, websites

23 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2013 @ 3:12pm

preempting blue's "omg they call themselves pirates" bs
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AppropriatedAppellation

scroll down that to the "real life section
[ link to this | view in thread ]
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

Shadow Dragon (profile), 7 Oct 2013 @ 3:16pm

insert OOTB inane rants and ad hominem attacks
Typical OOTB,cab.t even resist the urge to post his non-sense just because he bored and have nothing better to do with his time.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2013 @ 3:21pm

"others are willing to host the downed websites until such time as the government gets its act together."

It will probably only cost about 1/10th of what it costs taxpayers.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2013 @ 3:24pm

Really? This is beyond ignorant. How much can it cost to keep an existing website up and running? This is such a dog and pony show, unbelievable, just unbelievable.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2013 @ 3:33pm

I love the idea, in fact it could be hosted and duplicated around the world.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Luis Sanchez Perez, 7 Oct 2013 @ 3:39pm

Adopt a federal website
Excellent mockery of the government of the United States. I hope he stays closed forever
[ link to this | view in thread ]
pouar (profile), 7 Oct 2013 @ 4:03pm

Hope they take the offer. I would.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2013 @ 5:13pm

Just once I would like one of these agencies to give the finger to Obama and keep their pre-paid websites operating as per usual. If anyone asks, there's plenty of financial records dictating that the websites themselves are paid for in advance.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
6, 7 Oct 2013 @ 6:11pm

This is probably prohibited by law :( Furloughed Gov workers can't even volunteer service.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
OldMugwump (profile), 7 Oct 2013 @ 6:14pm

Can't they mirror them based on Google's cache?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2013 @ 8:10pm

Re: Can't they mirror them based on Google's cache?
Not if they have some levels with robot.txt
[ link to this | view in thread ]
This comment has been flagged by the community. Click here to show it

Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2013 @ 8:32pm

Your parents must be so proud of you, Masnick
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2013 @ 8:59pm

Re:
You know, I misread it and thought they were hosting the NSA's website. I thought, who cares, why would anyone want to host that? Now I just read it was NASA's website they were referring to.

It would be nice if the NSA would be the one with funds removed though. But, no, what gets cut are public programs while programs intended to maintain government oppression remain.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Pixelation, 7 Oct 2013 @ 9:17pm

What we're all thinking.
It can't be any less secure than hosting it on US servers.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 7 Oct 2013 @ 9:58pm

As if they would agree to this. They went out of their way to close open-air memorials. Today I heard that they put traffic cones on the side of a road from which people can see Mt Rushmore, because they didn't want anyone pulling over where they could get a view of the place while it is "closed".

If the pirates were ALREADY hosting the website for free, they'd order them to close it, because they're that petty.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
PaulT (profile), 8 Oct 2013 @ 1:20am

Re:
"They went out of their way to close open-air memorials."

Did they? I would have assumed that the costs of patrolling, securing, maintaining and cleaning such properties would still be there and that it would fall under the "non-essential" category. Open air doesn't mean cost-free. Do you have anything to show that they actually went out of their way to do this rather than it being a natural consequence of the shutdown?

"Today I heard that they put traffic cones on the side of a road from which people can see Mt Rushmore, because they didn't want anyone pulling over where they could get a view of the place while it is "closed"."

Do you have a citation for that, because that seems to be the type of idiotic right-wing crap that gets thrown around as if it's facts and almost always seems to turn out to be a ridiculous lie. I could be wrong and I'll defer to any citation you can provide, but it does sound like the sort of vague story that some people throw around to generate outrage rather than thoughtful debate.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Brazenly anonymous, 8 Oct 2013 @ 5:30am

Re: Re:
Two of four war memorials in Washington DC were closed on the first day of the shut down. These just happened to be the two that would be visited by a veteran honor flight.

This whole shut down? It's all a big publicity stunt in a desperate attempt to distract the nation from demanding the shutdown of the NSA's spying apparatus (other demands should include repealing the Patriot Act, repealing the NDAA, voting reforms because the two-party system is clearly not working).
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2013 @ 5:33am

Re: Re: Re:
Why am I seeing Poe's everywhere?

:)
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2013 @ 7:46am

Re: Re:
Here are your citations:

http://dakotawarcollege.com/federal-government-park-service-blocking-view-of-mt-rushmo re-from-highway-with-tim-johnsons-support/

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/iwo-jima-memorial- closed-barricades-erected_759277.html

http://www.studentnewsdaily.com/blog/d-c-monuments-barricad ed-during-shutdown/

http://webnerhouse.com/2013/10/03/closing-the-memorials/

http://www.weekly standard.com/blogs/wired-shut-barricade-wwii-memorial-reinforced_759193.html

http://nationalrevie w.com/corner/360423/national-park-service-attempts-barricade-mt-vernon-sterling-beard#!

Going "out of their way" to block access to open-air memorials means the park service or others constructed barricades where none existed. The Washington D.C. memorials are in parkland and have no gates or other impediments to block access under regular circumstances. As noted in the last sample, Mount Vernon is owned by a privately funded organization, yet the park service attempted to barricade it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2013 @ 8:12am

NASA was going to agree to this, but the NSA wanted a 'back door' quickly built in, just in case!!
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2013 @ 8:24am

Re: Re:
Ahh, nevermind, apparently the NSA has been affected as well.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 8 Oct 2013 @ 12:53pm

Re:
They have also shut down a historical site that is entirely owned, staffed, and funded privately, but that rents land from the park service. So, if they don't get to reopen before the end of the season or get enough donations, they'll have to shut down. http://1771.org/?page_id=1292
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Sriniwas, 3 Mar 2014 @ 7:44am

US Government do whatever they likes... i don't know why?
Cheap Web Hosting
[ link to this | view in thread ]