Post by gordon on Apr 28, 2022 3:36:04 GMT
Vlare.TV was founded in May 2019. It appeared very promising, had fancy features and a beautiful site design, and worked largely without issues for over a year, but then tragically and abruptly succumbed to a DMCA attack and a maliciously acting web hosting provider in August 2020.
In the video below, which was originally aired on VidLii on August 25, 2020 as "The status of Vlare", the operators of Vlare made promises of recovering, later followed by numerous promises after that video, but in July 2021, they have announced permanently ceasing operations.
Announcement video:
In the video, the Vlare developers describe how their web hosting provider failed to deliver a DMCA t****own request from August 14 to them. After three days without the developers being able to respond, the provider suspended the developers' access to the servers, where the videos were stored.
Then, the developers contacted the provider, which then claimed that the data is not recoverable without a court order due to an unspecified German law. Then the provider threatened the developers to immediately terminate their rented servers should they receive a court order, making it a vicious circle.
<rant>
In other words, Vlare's hosting provider screwed up majorly. First, they failed to deliver a notice, and then they locked out the developers from their rented servers for not responding to a notice the provider themselves failed to deliver. So the host shifted their mistake to the developers. This basically is bullying.
In the video, the developers make the appearance that they feel guilty, even though the rogue hosting provider is to blame.
</rant>
Later in the video, they developers mention having made the last full backup "two to three months" prior to the disaster, meaning in May or June 2020.
I tried to find a way to reach out to them, but I could not find any contact endpoints. One of the developers, nicknamed "Sudeurion", has even deleted their Twitter account. Their former VidLii profile first redirects to "vidlii.com/user/Homicide", and then to the home page with the notice "This user has voluntarily terminated their own account!". This is somewhat worrying.
Lost videos of interest
Please post videos of interest that were on Vlare TV but are now lost. Perhaps we can discover some again through our collective efforts.
- On June 29, 2020 (archive), a series of videos were posted by the Vlare developers: "FREE VLARE ADMIN but why?" (ID zBbp4cj9), "COMING TOMORROW FREE VLARE ADMIN" (ID 60Z4mR5T), "FREE VLARE ADMIN in 24 HOURS" (ID 6uZn8fTf). Apparently, those were part of a humorous gag / prank.
- On June 23, 2019, the Vlare user "TVCancerPatient" (which exists on no other platform) posted a 25-second video titled "Susan Shuffle" (ID JZd9tTPn, listed on this page). The thumbnail shows a picture of YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki with the text "The Susan Shuffle". Apparently, it was some satirical/humorous video criticizing Susan Wojcicki.
About the Vlare channel "TVCancerPatient": Their channel page was not picked up by the Wayback Machine. However, their channel is listed on this page from July 15, 2019. Their profile picture was Susan Wojcicki with devil horns.
