Lewdpatcher down?
- Thread starter br0nt
- Start date
As far as i know, nopy was shut down due to the lack of funds for hosting servers and proper maintenance. Lewdpatcher maybe just going thru some maintenance work (there's no official announcement/report yet). We can't do anything really, except to stay calm and just wait for it to be back up online.
- Aug 17, 2019
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Nopy was shut down because all the avenues of receiving funds from their supporters were taken away/suspended. Most recently Payoneer(sp?), which apparently was one of the final few, cut them off.
- Sep 18, 2021
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It's essentially the same reason why OnlyFans started talking about doing away with "sexually explicit material" (in spite of the fact that sexually explicit material is literally the only reason anyone ever used OnlyFans in the first place).
Basically, banks, credit card companies, and payment services like PayPal seem to be getting skittish about working with porn-related sites in general (possibly not over the actual content itself but because those sorts of sites are more inclined towards chargebacks or other things banks hate). Which is supposedly why Patreon has gotten touchier about what content they're willing to allow. In essence, if the services that actually move money around refuse to do business with you, then you have no way to really survive as a business. So you either bend over backwards to do what they want, or you die.
- Jun 10, 2017
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No it isn't.
OnlyFans was following MasterCard policy change. Since the 1st October, any platform using their service, and presenting adult content featuring real persons, need to ensure that those persons are of legal age, and are consenting. This change imply that OnlyFans have to change its uploading procedure, and also monitor all the uploaded content. At first they wanted to avoid this (and to have to hire more peoples), then they changed their mind face to the reaction of the public.
But there where a real reason behind their decision, a legal change with one of their partners.
But Nopy is in a different situation. They were responding to DMCA notices, what is all is asked for a hosting site. And they also weren't limited to adult content, even if it was probably the major part of what they were hosting. All hosting sites host adult content and pirated ones, yet they aren't in the same shit that led Nopy to close.
More importantly, the payment processors we not direct partners with Nopy. It's through their Patreon page that they earned most of the money needed to pay for the service. The payment processors were just the intermediaries that permit to transfer the money from the Patreon account, to the bank account used to pay the bills. It's like if whatever gas station you'll go, everyone was refusing to refuel your car, because they don't like the way you use it.
Worse, at no time they effectively explained what was the problem, and therefore didn't offered to Nopy the possibility to solve it. Technically speaking, "Nopy" could sue them, and would probably win. But well, it would take years, and cost way more than "Nopy" could afford to pay...
So yeah, don't compare this to OnlyFans situation, there's absolutely no common point between the two.
- Jan 14, 2018
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anne O'nymous not saying you're wrong but what ClockworkGnome is saying sounds pretty believable. The reason I think so is that I recently stumbled upon a podcast with a top earner for OnlyFans that lit says this too. BishoujoMom who apparently is, according to her own statement, a top earner for OnlyFans has a direct line with OnlyFans CEO. And this CEO says the exact same thing ClockworkGnome is saying. See the podcast here
I really do fear for amateur developers and us the users with regards to the platforms we use and how they are handling this. I hope that this is just temporary and lewdpatcher will be back soon because I already cannot play Apocalust unless I do it without the patch which will highly likely ruin the experience
EDIT: btw does lewdpatcher have like a twitter or something in which they report their website's status because I couldn't find anything?
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I really do fear for amateur developers and us the users with regards to the platforms we use and how they are handling this. I hope that this is just temporary and lewdpatcher will be back soon because I already cannot play Apocalust unless I do it without the patch which will highly likely ruin the experience
EDIT: btw does lewdpatcher have like a twitter or something in which they report their website's status because I couldn't find anything?
- Jun 10, 2017
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I didn't said that payment processors aren't the problem, but that OnlyFans case and Nopy one aren't at all related.
The problem that OnlyFans had to face is the result of some lobbying who use prostitution rings as excuse to push their puritan agenda. It's not new, and it's effectively what led to Patreon bans over some adult content.
I can't find the link, but I posted it once, few years ago. It's a English ex-politician who started a lobbying campaign to put pressure on Visa and MasterCard because some of the adult account on Patreon was used for prostitution. He then discovered that there were fictional bestiality, rape and incest, and added this to its complain.
The said payment processors didn't really had options here. Either they took action, asking Patreon to clean up its content, or they were taking the risk to face a campaign of discrediting claiming that they were supporting prostitution, incest and rape. This in the same way that MasterCard didn't really had options when they were facing the same risk, once again regarding prostitution.
But, while they are a weapon by destination, not the effective cause of the problems. Visa and MasterCard can't afford to loose the market in favor of PayPal, while PayPal itself can't afford to loose its dominant position in favor of the many competitor ready to take all compromise with the lobbyist in order to take the first place. And this, the few puritan lobbies understood it and clearly abuse of it.
But the problem that Nopy is facing is different. Mostly it's due to the fact that it wasn't a society, and therefore was less sensible to pressure.
Hosting sites are a threats for many industries, since it's the main node of any piracy model. When they are a society, those industry can put pressure on them ; comply to our request, prove that you are worthy, else be ready for troubles, we can destroy your business model. But when they are a purely independent entity, relying on donation to exist, like Nopy was, there's no way to put pressure on you. At least, no way others that justice, but you need proof that they did something illegal to play this card. If you loose your trial you'll face a really bad press, especially nowadays and if it was against an independent structure ; in fact, the risk exist the instant you start the law suit.
Therefore, the pressure was put on the payment processors. It's just an example, but lets say that a society like Disney phone to Visa CEO and say that, if they don't stop to deal with Nopy, well, starting now they'll use MasterCard service instead, you comply... It's absolutely not legal, but you can't prove it, as well as you can't afford to loose all the benefits you make thanks to Disney.
It's purely theoretical, there's no proof of all this. But the fact is that all of them put Nopy in a position where they can't solve the issue. There were no possibility to negotiate a compromise, and no real reason was gave to explain their position. This is not the usual behavior of payment processors, mainly because it's not legal to unilaterally stop a contract this way when you're a society ; they have to explain what is the problem and present conditions (possibly impossible) to avoid the end of the contract.
The fact that they didn't is the proof that they aren't at ease with their position. And it's not due to the pornographic content hosted by Nopy. They don't care this much about pornography, it pay well, even for them, and any partner involved in it have to make a blocked security deposit for tenths millions US dollars in order to be accepted ; this in order to cover the risk of fraud, that is the only thing that payment processors fear when it come to adult content, since it's very high with this topic.
- Nov 18, 2020
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Well this time not only the Page is down. It seems that also the Accounts for the actual Downloads have been Deleted/Banned. But didn't find any Infos on why this is happening.
I emailed the domain contact. Not sure If that will ever reach anyone but worth a shot. I'd be happy to take over hosting if it was a cost thing.
If Lewdpatcher does go away for money issues (i.e.- unable to continue to pay for site fees), and you want to open a new place to host patches, then I will gladly support you.
- Aug 19, 2020
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Sadly, there is still no information on why or how temporary it is. In general, the situation with 18+ hosting is alarming. However, the solution has been around for a long time - torrents. Who needs hostings when content can be handed out through p2p.
- Jan 14, 2018
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Yes and no the devs still need a way to earn money. Torrents don't provide this
- Sep 18, 2021
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And many people don't like using torrents for a multitude of reasons anyway. There's a reason why people still use file hosting services (and arguably the vast majority use them, which is why they're the go-to option for listing links here) in spite of the fact that p2p and torrents have existed for about 20 years.Yes and no the devs still need a way to earn money. Torrents don't provide this
- Aug 19, 2020
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They do not receive money for what I download from mega or anonfile. And so there is patreon, there is steam.
And many people like it. Torrents practically do not have any disadvantages, except for the need for goodwill on the part of the downloaded ones to stay on the distribution, but there are many advantages. Anonymity, the inability to remove content physically from the outside, constant access to content while at least one computer with it remains on the network, resistance to any blocking methods, no any content on hosting, only links to it. And if the maintenance of some large distributions takes up a lot of space, then it is not necessary to store small patches on disk at all, for example, I could well allocate space for all incest-uncensor-lewd and tp patches on my external drive, even if there are thousands of them, but their average size is about 1MB. Decentralization is the only adequate defense against censorship
And about 14 of them I actively use torrents. And file hostings only because of the lack of an alternative. By the way, thousands of file exchangers have died during this time. All the torrents I started using around 2007 are still around today and are giving content posted 15 years ago that can't be found anywhere else. Many exchangers have survived this period, and many distributions have survived on them throughout this period?
Ultimately, it's not so much about replacement, even if those people who are more convenient to use hosting services that constantly fall and limit the download speed use hosting services. But the distributions themselves are duplicated through the torrent. And I'm surprised that only a small percentage of the games on this resource have torrent links.
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- Sep 18, 2021
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Almost nothing you said changes or contradicts what I said in the slightest, though.
I'm not saying torrents are terrible, or that you can't use them, or that no one ever uses them. But your personal experience doesn't really define or reflect everyone's opinions. And yes, plenty of people don't like torrents, and there are reasons why file sharing services are way more popular (even if you don't agree with those reasons or don't feel like they matter to you personally).
So no, the "solution" hasn't necessarily been around for a long time if a lot of people don't actually want to use the solution you're proposing.