CloudFlare Watch(crimeflare.com) |
CloudFlare Watch(crimeflare.com) |
Honestly, the only thing I don't like about CloudFlare is their treatment of Tor users, which I don't see being mentioned anywhere in here.
As a Tor relay operator and CF customer, I've been really split on the effects of CF's power. After all, blocking heuristics is just what I need.
Part of my job is maintaining a bunch of viral WordPress sites on a small budget. In addition to the crazy bandwidth and responsiveness a CF pro subscription buys you, the service really is a small biz secops dream machine. I can actually focus on writing when I just put sites behind CF.
Maybe it's Appelbaum's fate to be the Stallman of any tech with mass surveillance potential. That's not an insult and it's good to have immutable critics of centralized infrastructure. But it's certainly a bit tiresome sometimes.
The options presented by CF seem to hit a nice balance. Making blanket Tor blocking an enterprise-only feature is a nice touch. In the spirit of that, it'd maybe make sense to also make JS challenge the default for new Cloudflare domains?
Now, if there only was some magic beyond keyless ssl to get rid of the MiTM aspect...
(Based on the IRS letter posted on the site at http://www.crimeflare.com/gifs/irslet.gif which mentions "Public Information Research Inc", Brandt's organization)
Update: confirmed, here's a page on the site which Daniel signs his name to: http://www.crimeflare.com/cfs.html
https://web.archive.org/web/20060819151043/http://en.wikiped...
Partial postmortem edit log:
https://web.archive.org/web/20120204052201/http://en.wikiped...
Some people say mean, false, and hurtful things. But others can say kind, insightful, and truthful things.
Some religious traditions are honestly rather disturbing to me. But others are a part of who I am.
I would much prefer to live in a world where everyone is free to use the Internet, speak, and believe as they desire, even if that has some negative consequences, than to live in a world where someone else dictates what I or anyone else can publish, say, and believe.
Free speech doesn't require private entities to host or publish regardless of content, and it's totally consistent to both advocate for free speech and advocate that entities not make certain kinds of speech. For example, I think the KKK should be allowed to say all the hateful things they say, and I also think the KKK should close up shop and stop bothering everybody.
And no, it wouldn't dictate what you could say or believe, but it can help you say it. And if you need to say something that a powerful entity doesn't want said, they can protect you from DDoS and other attacks.
It's one thing to advocate that entities not make certain kinds of speech - by all means, please advocate away! But CloudFlare is an assistant to speech, not just an advocate. The moment you start making rules and decisions about what you enable, you open yourself up to the human possibility of making wrong rules and decisions. And that means it's better to not make the rules in the first place. "Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer" and all that.
And on http://www.crimeflare.com/cfs.html you can see he accepts payments through Paypal, why rally against CloudFlare but don't mind getting money through Paypal?
The Silicon Valley is the opium of the people quote just makes it feel all in all very goofy, combined with the nineties website, comic sans and under construction gifs just seem to lack.
I do not agree with what you have to say, but I'll defend to the death your right to say it.
1 point for consistency. -100000 points for advocating censorship.
What the hell?!? He pays 600 bucks a month for some shitty HTML? What kind of hosting is this?
Of course, that's still way too much. I don't believe that's an honest figure, or the owner is being ripped off.
Good on CloudFlare.
In case you're looking for alternatives, Kloudsec [1] is a minimal CDN platform made for programmers. And I think we make a good alternative because:
a) You get to keep your nameservers, just point the relevant domain to our CDN's IP
b) Auto LetsEncrypt SSL cert provisioning (and renewing too)
c) Every plugin is optional (WAF, Pagespeed, Analytics). Just toggle them on and off. You can also build/bring your own (nginx) plugin onto our CDN network.
But then again, if you're using Nginx something like the following may work (gah, have not tested):
http {
map $http_cf_ipcountry $allow_country {
default yes;
T1 no;
}
server {
if ($allow_country = no) {
return 403;
}
}
}
Or you could do the opposite and restrict access unless someone is accessing via Tor ;)
The old variant which makes you read street numbers is pretty quick and painless - type in 3 or 4 digits and you're done. With the new one, first you have to figure out what it wants you to identify (street signs? storefronts? lakes? mountains? food?), and then scan through a bunch of small, poorly focused images. Even if you get it right, many times it asks you to complete two or three separate challenges before it lets you through.
The only time the new version is more usable is when you run into the one old variant which is virtually unsolvable.[1] I actually wonder if some of these even have solutions. There have been countless times where it's rejected an answer I was sure was correct.
[1]https://2.bp.blogspot.com/---dJJOn8n9c/U1rZNDiWG1I/AAAAAAAAO...
Free speech means that you can say whatever you want, but it does not mean that you can get others to help you say it. If they want to help then fine, but if they don't want to help you that's not a free speech issue.
For the reasons described, the thought experiment would (in my mind) suggest that there should be no speech restrictions, so that's the action they should take. Or you could describe it as "do unto others as you would have them do unto you".
