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RIAA Web Site Moved To Linux

Posted by kdawson on Sun Jun 17, 2007 09:28 PM
from the circle-the-wagons dept.
xseedit writes "The RIAA has moved their main Web site www.riaa.com from IIS on Win2003 to Apache 2.2.3 on Red Hat. It appears that the move did not go smoothly as it resulted in an 8-hour downtime starting yesterday around noon, according to Netcraft. And the RIAA is still showing a 'temporarily under construction' page. They also moved their DNS from the small company that had been hosting them for the past 4 years, Tomorrow's Solutions Today (TST Inc.), to Mindshift Technologies. One can only guess what happened here, but the move seems to have been sudden and unplanned. They still haven't moved the riaa.org, riaa.net, and musicunited.org domains — those are still pointing to the TST nameservers that no longer accept queries for those domains. TST Inc. deserves credit, however. They seem to have managed to host the RIAA quite successfully for the past 4 years. Will Mindshift do a better job hosting one of the most reviled, and therefore most attacked, Web sites in the world? I wonder if anybody at the RIAA or TST would care to comment on the reasons behind this sudden move. Could it be that the RIAA is being sued by its hosting provider? Or perhaps the sue-happy organizaiton is suing its provider?"
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  • first post (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 17, @07:24PM (#19545353)
    I cannot conceive of a less interesting "story" than this one. Kudos, slashdot.
    • Re:first post by Anonymous Coward (Score:3) Sunday June 17, @09:59PM
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
    • So... (Score:5, Funny)

      by Artifice_Eternity (306661) on Sunday June 17, @10:20PM (#19546475)
      (http://subintsoc.net/)
      It appears that the move did not go smoothly as it resulted in an 8-hour downtime starting yesterday around noon, according to Netcraft.

      NETCRAFT CONFIRMS: RIAA IS DEAD!
      [ Parent ]
      • Re:So... by Anonymous Coward (Score:1) Sunday June 17, @10:39PM
      • Re:So... by Emciess (Score:1) Tuesday June 19, @12:08AM
    • The funny thing is.... by Anonymous Coward (Score:2) Sunday June 17, @11:02PM
    • Re:first post (Score:5, Insightful)

      by notnAP (846325) on Monday June 18, @06:57AM (#19549109)
      The journalism on /. is getting more and more questionable, to be sure.
      What gets me is the rampant speculation.
      Did the RIAA sue TNT? Did TNT sue the RIAA?
      Or did the RIAA pull their business because the Son of Satan - still a young lad and not yet able to lead the hellish forces and kick-start the end of days - is an intern at TNT?
      Who knows?
      But until we do know, let's just put anything up on the board. Drudge does it. Why can't we?

      Alas, sometimes I fool myself into thinking, just because they use the motto "News for Nerds..." this site actually tries to act as a news site instead of a blog (or a blog of other blogs).
      [ Parent ]
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
    • Re:first post by elrous0 (Score:2) Monday June 18, @08:25AM
    • Linux beware! by creationer (Score:1) Monday June 18, @10:08AM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • by catbutt (469582) on Sunday June 17, @07:26PM (#19545365)
    Evil organizationss won't be able to use Linux or other GPL'd software.
  • My guess... (Score:5, Insightful)

    Could it be that the RIAA is being sued by its hosting provider? Or perhaps the sue-happy organizaiton is suing its provider?
    ... Or maybe they just wanted a more secure hosting platform located with a provider who has experience with member-oriented organizations [mindshift.com]. There's always that possibility.
  • But... (Score:5, Funny)

    by skinfitz (564041) on Sunday June 17, @07:27PM (#19545373)
    (Last Journal: Monday December 22 2003, @01:52PM)
    Does that mean they are violating 200+ Microsoft patents now? ...and lets not forget SCO...
  • Finally!! (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 17, @07:31PM (#19545389)
    I finally got to put a chalk mark in the PROs column of my RIAA scoreboard. Actually, I had to create a PROs column. Actually, it would be nice if they'd go back to M$ and I can go back to having only one column.
    • Re:Finally!! by jibjibjib (Score:2) Monday June 18, @02:03AM
      • Re:Finally!! by level_headed_midwest (Score:1) Monday June 18, @08:10AM
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • Uhh, okay. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by DrEldarion (114072) on Sunday June 17, @09:30PM (#19546111)
    I hate to sit here and be critical, but is this really "stuff that matters"? This is one of the most meaningless stories I've seen in ages on this site. After looking at the firehose and what doesn't get accepted, it amazes me that something this dumb can be posting material.
    • Re:Uhh, okay. by Necroman (Score:2) Sunday June 17, @09:34PM
      • Re:Uhh, okay. by Necroman (Score:2) Monday June 18, @12:03AM
        • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
      • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
    • Re:Uhh, okay. by Anonymous Coward (Score:2) Sunday June 17, @09:35PM
    • Re:Uhh, okay. (Score:5, Funny)

      by Wescotte (732385) on Sunday June 17, @09:36PM (#19546147)
      I hate to sit here and be critical, but is this really "stuff that matters"? This is one of the most meaningless stories I've seen in ages on this site. After looking at the firehose and what doesn't get accepted, it amazes me that something this dumb can be posting material.

      The RIAA is Paris Hilton for nerds where even the most pointless story that is related to it gets too much coverage.
      [ Parent ]
    • Well, Yeah by QuantumG (Score:1) Sunday June 17, @10:00PM
    • Re:Uhh, okay. by TheDarkener (Score:2) Sunday June 17, @10:02PM
    • Re:Uhh, okay. by Max Littlemore (Score:2) Sunday June 17, @10:14PM
    • Re:Uhh, okay. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by kimvette (919543) on Sunday June 17, @10:36PM (#19546557)
      (http://kim.biyn.com/)
      Actually, it does. RIAA, for all their crying about IP rights, is moving to Linux, which Microsoft claims violates 235 patents, and even insinuate that Linux might contain Microsoft-copyrighted code. If the RIAA truly cared about IP, they would steer clear of Linux for the sake of PR, regardless of increased security risks and licensing costs they incur by continuing to host on Windows.
      [ Parent ]
    • Re:Uhh, okay. by gordgekko (Score:2) Sunday June 17, @10:41PM
    • Re:Uhh, okay. by xs650 (Score:3) Sunday June 17, @11:45PM
    • Re:Uhh, okay. by dweebzilla (Score:1) Monday June 18, @05:54AM
    • On Standing Up Targets by bill_mcgonigle (Score:2) Sunday June 17, @10:11PM
    • 3 replies beneath your current threshold.
  • Could it be? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 17, @09:31PM (#19546115)

    Could it be that the RIAA is being sued by its hosting provider? Or perhaps the sue-happy organizaiton is suing its provider?
    Could it be the submitter of this article is simply engaging in random, mindless speculation?
     
    • Re:Could it be? (Score:5, Funny)

      by suv4x4 (956391) on Sunday June 17, @10:10PM (#19546407)
      Could it be the submitter of this article is simply engaging in random, mindless speculation?

      I've been reading Slashdot for years now, this is the first time this happens.
      [ Parent ]
    • Re:Could it be? by Gazzonyx (Score:2) Monday June 18, @07:39AM
  • Really??? (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by Captain Murdock (906610) on Sunday June 17, @09:35PM (#19546145)
    I honestly can't believe this got posted. Everything in this description is pure speculation and the only link is to the RIAA website? I know Slashdot has a tendency to flip out over anything the RIAA does, but this is ridiculous. So their website has some downtime. Whatever. Slashdot needs some better filters for stories or something. Come on.
  • Hrm? (Score:2, Funny)

    I wonder if they can sue the provider, if some body hosts music on there servers?
    • Re:Hrm? by totally bogus dude (Score:1) Sunday June 17, @11:04PM
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • I wonder (Score:5, Funny)

    by NCTRNAL (780392) on Sunday June 17, @09:40PM (#19546199)
    (http://apple.slashdot.org/)
    Maybe they discovered they were running a pirated version of Win2K3, too bad they didn't become self-aware and implode upon themselves, greedy fucks....
  • I'm trying to see their groovy new website - I can't WAIT to learn all the cool new ways I can help to fight piracy! Gee i know that website is gonna be swell ... ..... but the website still just doesn't work -

    All I do is hit "refresh" over and over and over and over

    but nothing happens!

    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • and I guess it messed up their server. My bad.
  • so are we supposed to... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 17, @10:09PM (#19546399)
    The RIAA is using Linux...

      Control passes through the teeny tiny loops of slashbot's brain for a while
     
    ERROR: CANNOT DECIDE WHETHER THIS IS GOOD NEWS OR BAD
  • Here's a mistery... (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Tatisimo (1061320) on Sunday June 17, @10:17PM (#19546453)
    Why do they (the RIAA) have a "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content" on their temporary page right now? I wonder...
  • as a Linux user (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 17, @10:17PM (#19546457)
    I suddenly feel so dirty...
  • This stinks of (Score:2)

    by bky1701 (979071) on Sunday June 17, @10:36PM (#19546559)
    (http://68.48.55.94:27015/)
    The RIAA trying to poison the anti-copyright (GPL, BSD, etc) stew... though unless they start toting it as proof of the failure of freedom and that copyright is needed I'll take it as a coincidence.
  • site down (Score:1)

    by orra (1039354) on Sunday June 17, @10:41PM (#19546593)
    Currently, the RIAA homepage is a simple page which says something along the lines of 'our site is down now'. What I love is how the only site that page links to is completely down.
  • slashdotting (Score:5, Funny)

    by oztiks (921504) on Sunday June 17, @10:42PM (#19546605)
    I'm more then sure putting their link on slashdot is not helping their downtime situation.
  • Test before going live (Score:4, Informative)

    Um, how hard can a server migration be?

    Take snapshot of old server
    Deploy snapshot on new server.
    Test new server under simulated load.
    Sync new server with old server. Bonus if you can keep any web boards fully functional during the transition.
    Redirect DNS.
    PROFIT.

    Sure the details are a bit more complicated but for a single server or small farm that's the gist of it.

    If you plan it right and execute it right it should go without any hiccups.
    • Re:Test before going live (Score:4, Insightful)

      by totally bogus dude (1040246) on Monday June 18, @12:15AM (#19547107)

      Well, they were also moving platform -- I don't know whether their old site was static HTML with only a few simple scripts or something more complicated, but that can throw a spanner in the works.

      Their site currently has a message saying they're launching a new site, so I think it wasn't a simple migration. Of course, stuffing up the launch of a new site on new servers takes a special kind of ineptitude all of its own.

      If you plan it right and execute it right it should go without any hiccups.

      Sure, but they're a bunch of lawyers so they wouldn't have done any of the technical planning, and they're moving to different web hosts which means neither host particularly cares: one is the ex-host which doesn't want to waste time and money on a customer they've already lost, and the other already has their money and a contract which says "you can fuck us over for 6 months because it's too expensive to go somewhere else until that point"; and each is blaming the other for the fuck up, as per standard operating procedure.

      I'm probably a bit jaded, but it's been a long time since I've received adequate customer service from any of our suppliers, much less good service; but I guess that's inevitable when the only real point of comparison you can make between companies before actually using them for a while is price.

      [ Parent ]
    • Re:Test before going live by ArsenneLupin (Score:2) Monday June 18, @12:47AM
    • Re:Test before going live by howlingmadhowie (Score:1) Monday June 18, @02:23AM
    • Re:Test before going live by Ephemeriis (Score:2) Monday June 18, @07:22AM
    • 2 replies beneath your current threshold.
  • They switched to Linux, so they're good, right?
  • Brilliant (Score:2)

    by stox (131684) on Sunday June 17, @11:00PM (#19546703)
    (http://www.stox.org/)
    If I was looking for samples of the latest attacks, I couldn't think of a better site to host. I wonder how much they can sell their logs for to security companies?
  • Link to Netcraft (Score:4, Informative)

    by xseedit (901381) on Sunday June 17, @11:04PM (#19546739)
    In case some people want to see for themselves the Netcraft stats can be found here [netcraft.com] and to verify who owns a domain and what the authoritative nameservers are one should use whois [whois.net].
    Is this stuff that matters? Perhaps not for everybody, but some people may be interested. The P2Plawsuits [p2plawsuits.com] site to settle your case online instead of risking court was moved fast, but I wonder how many people would be willing to enter their credit card info on a site with an invalid SSL cert.
  • libdvdcss (Score:1)

    by goarilla (908067) on Sunday June 17, @11:28PM (#19546863)
    does red hat come with libdvdcss ? would be very ironic if it did
    • Re:libdvdcss by perlchild (Score:2) Monday June 18, @12:38AM
  • They're probably losing millions of dollars in revenue per hour with this downtime.

    Or possibly they aren't and don't care about downtime and even less on Sundays...

  • Nothing to see here (Score:4, Interesting)

    by totally bogus dude (1040246) on Sunday June 17, @11:49PM (#19546959)

    The RIAA likely doesn't know -- much less care -- what OS or web server is running their web site. Unless you're actually a hosting company, or a company somehow involved in web hosting such that it's worth the time and money to run your own servers, the platform is entirely handled by whoever is doing your hosting. You decide who's doing your hosting based on price and features; "Linux" or "Windows" is not a feature in and of itself. Even the security of it isn't your concern: that's a problem for the people running the servers that host your website to deal with as they see fit. You, as a hosting customer, rely on their expertise in that regard.

    So, pointless speculation about the deeper meaning aside, it seems they're launching a new site and moving to a new host at the same time. Only they don't have their new site ready (or it was ready, but then turned out to be broken so they're fixing it before trying again) before they moved. That's a bit odd, unless their old site had incorrect or damaging information on it and having no website was better than leaving that content up... but a big company mismanaging the move and relaunch of a website is hardly news.

  • Nooooooooo... (Score:3, Funny)

    by jasquigl (950500) on Monday June 18, @12:54AM (#19547291)
    I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of kernels suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. I fear something terrible has happened.
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • Naah (Score:2)

    by suv4x4 (956391) on Monday June 18, @01:34AM (#19547447)
    Could it be that the RIAA is being sued by its hosting provider? Or perhaps the sue-happy organizaiton is suing its provider?

    Naah, I feel freemasons must be involved somehow.
  • by mgiuca (1040724) on Monday June 18, @01:53AM (#19547569)
    RIAA runs Linux!??

    How will they play DRM-protected music and video formats?
  • It could be that the RIAA simply wants to distance itself from Vista inepptitude. Thus linux might be a good choice to dodge the financial bullets.
  • My own guess... (Score:2)

    by petrus4 (213815) on Monday June 18, @03:05AM (#19547937)
    (http://aqpeag.blogspot.com/ | Last Journal: Saturday April 21 2007, @05:39AM)
    ...is that a desire for greater security was probably the motivation behind the move. If, as TFA says, the RIAA site is one of the most regularly defaced on the planet, then it makes a lot of sense that the people running it would want to try and make defacement more difficult. Cracking the site was probably trivial when it was hosted with IIS.

    Personally however, Red Hat wouldn't have been my own first choice, but a lot of web hosting providers do run it and I doubt the RIAA host their website in-house.
  • by memorder (1049688) on Monday June 18, @04:40AM (#19548369)
    What about "Linux violates 235 Microsoft's patents", will Mustdiesoft sue RIAA for patent infringments ? Also I hope author of Linux kernel will be paid ...
  • Anarchy Rules! (Score:1)

    by PadRacerExtreme (1006033) on Monday June 18, @07:03AM (#19549133)

    Could it be that the RIAA is being sued by its hosting provider? Or perhaps the sue-happy organizaiton is suing its provider?"

    Facts be damned, let wild speculation abound!!!

  • Damn commies!!! (Score:2)

    by Ekhymosis (949557) on Monday June 18, @08:13AM (#19549683)
    (http://127.0.0.1/)
    If using linux = communism, then the RIAA are a pack of commie bastards! I'm so confused now!!! =(
  • by Deliveranc3 (629997) on Monday June 18, @08:28AM (#19549837)
    (Last Journal: Sunday November 06 2005, @02:43AM)
    open source business model?

    My Winamp dines tonight!
  • by Ralph Spoilsport (673134) on Monday June 18, @08:32AM (#19549881)
    (Last Journal: Monday July 12 2004, @09:38PM)
    Twas asked:

    They seem to have managed to host the RIAA quite successfully for the past 4 years. Will Mindshift do a better job hosting one of the most reviled, and therefore most attacked, Web sites in the world? I wonder if anybody at the RIAA or TST would care to comment on the reasons behind this sudden move. Could it be that the RIAA is being sued by its hosting provider? Or perhaps the sue-happy organizaiton is suing its provider?"

    Or, is this entire article just another excuse to beat up on the RIAA?

    ...not that there is anything wrong with that....

    RS

  • Apache 2.2 Manual (Score:1)

    by bguzz (728614) * on Monday June 18, @10:52AM (#19551625)
  • ...they got problems with that EULA and DRM things...
  • by pixel_bc (265009) on Monday June 18, @01:30PM (#19554301)
    Why is this news?

    OP - go away.
  • It's one gigantic hated, monopoly-spawning megacorp against another! Who am I supposed to hate, now?!

    Just kidding... I still hate both of them.
  • by elFisico (877213) on Wednesday June 20, @10:40AM (#19580855)
    What if the Apache Fuondation would now revoke the Apache license just for the RIAA and clearly state that such organisations are from now on barred to use Apache products? I would LOVE to see such clauses in licenses: "If you are doing evil things, you may not use this product".

    But I'm dreaming...
  • by jpcooper (1118835) on Friday June 22, @10:55AM (#19609325)
    Wouldn't you just love to see SCO or Microsoft filing a lawsuit against RIAA for copyright infringement in using Linux?
  • As irrelevant as this "story" is, and as sensationalistic as the description is...even then, it's still not as bad as WoW addiction. That shit is no joking matter.

    A better hobby is probably feeding Vogon grandmothers to the Ravenous Bugblatter Beast of Traal.
    [ Parent ]
  • Since when was Sourceforge Inc. a member of the open source community?

    More seriously, I don't understand how the story is detrimental to the RIAA's reputation (they moved hosting providers...so what?) so why would it be libelous.

    [ Parent ]
  • Re:rss feed (Score:1, Offtopic)

    This story was posted for all viewers at one point earlier today (before the Ubuntu validates as Windows story).

    In fact, some of the comments made then appear to have been deleted.
    [ Parent ]
  • Re:Careful... (Score:5, Funny)

    by DamnStupidElf (649844) <Fingolfin@linuxmail.org> on Sunday June 17, @10:15PM (#19546449)
    It's all in how you word it. Require negative evidence, make "educated" guesses, etc. Observe:

    My best guess is that the RIAA has been feeding little children to alligators in third world countries and charging admission in order to pay for their webhosting, and their previous hosting company found out about it. I have no evidence that they have stopped the practice, but they may now be selling children on the black market as well because of the higher TCO for running Linux, as evidenced by all the non-libelous reports from Microsoft. Moreover, in my estimation the quickest way for the RIAA to migrate their pages to a Linux host involves slave labor in Chinese coding factories with 16 hour workdays, 7 days a week, paying the overworked programmers only One Pittance per month.It's also really easy to claim that any losses incurred during the switch were caused by "piracy." Now I'm not an expert on the RIAA or anything, but I would be completely surprised if it wasn't true.

    Sue me for that, suckers.
    [ Parent ]
  • Re:fsr235fsfzdzc2425#%zcszfr (Score:2, Funny)

    by madsheep (984404) on Sunday June 17, @11:47PM (#19546945)
    (http://www.securityzone.org/)
    Moran? What is a moran?
    [ Parent ]
  • by Architect_sasyr (938685) on Monday June 18, @12:16AM (#19547113)
    It's called meta moderating... if you had bothered to research even a slight bit (kid's these days!) you would know that slashdot has a feature for this. Whilst I agree with neither moderation (all should have been offtopic, as I expect this will get moderated by someone), the fact is that they are completely off topic and should not be viewed by the people who do not surf at -1 (and judging by the utter stupidity of the post I am responding to I can see why). If you don't like what you can't see (and slashdot DOES say "1 reply beneath your threshold" where necessary) then you can change it. If you can't do that, or if your little level 2 gnome can't handle the action, then don't get into the fight.

    One other thing... GET OFF MY LAWN! Damned kids...
    [ Parent ]
    • 1 reply beneath your current threshold.
  • Ha...ye...so much for my voluntarily modding myself down to a 1 (instead of a 2) due to the slightly off topic nature of my post. In theory that is supposed to stop the mods modding you down further.

    Welcome to /. and as you've discovered the way to really annoy the mods is to criticise their modding.

    I don't have a problem with modding but it would be nice if there were more and clearer categories (as you can decide in your prefs the effect of the modding categorisation). Mods usually mod any opinion they disagree with as flamebait or troll and any statement of fact that sounds clever even if they know it is utter bullshit as insightful or interesting.

    Better mod categories would be, off the top of my head, something like: `untrue', `nonsense', `spam' (e.g.: advertising, meme), `hackneyed', `unverifiable', `totally off topic', `brought off topic', and even `unpopular' if you have to (but, hell, I'd set mine to mod those posts up), with clear guidelines on what is what. Notice how it is difficult to dispute what fits into those categories.
    [ Parent ]
  • 15 replies beneath your current threshold.