cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/31443410

Cock.li will shut down before becoming complicit in crimes against its own userbase by duress of any government or organization.

For nearly 11 years, cock.li has remained one of the only public e-mail providers to allow registration as anonymously as a library card. The fact that it's still possible to get an e-mail address as easy as 20 years ago is a fact widely *hated* by international governments; at least the parts of those governments which have dedicated countless resources to target our service, our team, our family, and our friends with illegal surveillance, bad-jacketing, organized disinformation, and much worse.

A combination of these illegal tactics have become so serious that the site is now in grave danger.

The only way it's been possible for cock.li to weather this and stay online is thanks to the dedication of our entire lives to this bit. Our small team of 3-5 people have had our lives permanently altered and our stability sacrificed so Internet users worldwide can more-or-less enjoy the comfort of being able to access e-mail without requiring a phone number or other surveillance document.

Despite the constant attacks on the service and our personal lives, no one directly involved has ever been paid in 11 years for their work on cock.li. The personal costs of this volunteer work add up over a lifetime, and as we get older we've slowly taken steps back to compensate, when we should have been stepping up.

Stepping up is exactly what's needed right now, and we're here to do it. These recent issues have forced us to take leave from our jobs to make time just to keep the wheels spinning. I hope you can understand that is why, for the first time ever, I'm asking you to donate directly to the people who make cock.li possible.

Your donation will make a real difference by telling us to use the money where it will help the most right now. We have a sizable war chest for legal expenses that has never once been used to pay us for our work. Problem is, if we can't make time to put that war chest to work, what good is it? We believe cannibalizing this fund to offset our lost time would put cock.li in a worse position, so by creating a new fund we can make it clear what we're doing while keeping our legal funds secure.

It shouldn't surprise you that the people who are so passionate about this service are not profiteers or business people. We are private, unpaid individuals who don't want to see one of the last great liberties of this Internet fall victim to the criminal and violent attempts to shut it down. If these critical threats force us to change the world to ensure e-mail remains recognized as a human right, we won't hesitate to do it.

We never once asked for personal donations specifically in the hopes that if this moment ever came, our userbase would appreciate that we were able to make it this long on passion alone, and trust that your donation will make the best possible impact.

There is much work to be done. I will keep you updated as much as I can. Thank you very much for your consideration.

Monero:  41fqXKYNEWuBDuqYczhoSiE1aUN9tCGdWYrfjynebuTM3tdE5UUHEfeZjZ3iZpgqY8LdYLk9h4As66UBC5mARL4z98PfUwB
Bitcoin: bc1qg9ehmfzusgfd6dvudll0qxkcl8c5q3sh8qnetr

~!~

In the 2022 film `COCKCON 2020 (2019)`[0], a 250MB encrypted file was hidden in a second video track of the 1080p release. You can download this film here[1]. I don't know if the encryption key will ever be released, but if it does, you'll want quick access to that file.

Furthermore, two more files are released today, 2024-11-12: ins10.luks[2] (555MB) and ins11.luks[3] (64MB). Please download these torrents and seed them as long as you can. Please consider your privacy when seeding.

[0]: https://vc.gg/film/cockcon-2020/
[1]: magnet:?xt=urn:btih:TBU2RE2ENTL6USAZVX7HH7V3TYMK2KVI&dn=COCKCON%202020%20(2019)%20(2022)%20%5B1080p%5D%20%5BOvO%5D&tr=https%3A%2F%2Fpub.tracker.aaathats3as.com%3A443%2Fannounce
[2]: magnet:?xt=urn:btih:RZ5PIPVCPPJC7JWIVU74V5JANJ4O3RXL&dn=ins10.luks&xl=581959680&tr=https%3A%2F%2Fpub.tracker.aaathats3as.com%3A443%2Fannounce
[3]: magnet:?xt=urn:btih:DX6I2QFYIBYZPCP5FPRBORTQVCM4NVRG&dn=ins11.luks&xl=67108864&tr=https%3A%2F%2Fpub.tracker.aaathats3as.com%3A443%2Fannounce
  • Rikudou_Sage@lemmings.worldEnglish
    31·
    4 days ago

    Just curious, what’s in the torrents?

    Anyway, leaving your jobs to have time for your side project is exactly how we get another core.js story. Read that dude’s story.

    • Breve@pawb.socialEnglish
      22·
      4 days ago

      Encrypted data. Could be backups of important service details in case all their servers are seized, leaked or sensitive data they are holding as leverage, or a private porn collection. Nobody knows until they release a decryption key.

    • shaserlark@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      141·
      4 days ago

      I just read the story of the core.js guy and it’s absolutely heartbreaking, makes me think I was smart to abandon any FOSS projects I was involved in even though I’m sad about it

        • shaserlark@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          6·
          4 days ago

          another core.js story. Read that dude’s story.

          Was referring to this part of the top level comment. The maintainer of core.js posted his story on his GitHub page, really fucked up shit that I can’t even summarize adequately.

          • Ganbat@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            2·
            4 days ago

            And the entitled bs still doesn’t stop, even when called out. From recent comments on the issue:

            He wants people to give him money just because he wants it.
            I hope God guides his way into salvation.

            Crackhead bs right there.

  • mindbleach@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    31·
    4 days ago

    Don’t use inline code / code blocks formatting for text. There’s no line breaks and the syntax highlighting is nonsense.

    • SatyrSack@feddit.orgEnglish
      13·
      4 days ago

      I agree that using a code block is not the right way to handle quotes, but you can control the syntax highlighting in a markdown code block by adding a language identifier.

      ```
We never once asked for personal donations specifically in the hopes that if this moment ever came, our userbase would appreciate that we were able to make it this long on passion alone, and trust that your donation will make the best possible impact.
```

      We never once asked for personal donations specifically in the hopes that if this moment ever came, our userbase would appreciate that we were able to make it this long on passion alone, and trust that your donation will make the best possible impact.

      ``` text
We never once asked for personal donations specifically in the hopes that if this moment ever came, our userbase would appreciate that we were able to make it this long on passion alone, and trust that your donation will make the best possible impact.
```

      We never once asked for personal donations specifically in the hopes that if this moment ever came, our userbase would appreciate that we were able to make it this long on passion alone, and trust that your donation will make the best possible impact.

      ``` cpp
bool getBit(int num, int i) {
    return ((num & (1<<i)) != 0);
}
```

      bool getBit(int num, int i) {
    return ((num & (1<<i)) != 0);
}

      ``` python
def add(a, b):
    return a + b
```

      def add(a, b):
    return a + b
  • yetAnotherUser@lemmy.caEnglish
    3·
    4 days ago

    It seems they are going to update the message every two days. For example, if you look at the message right now, it already has some differences.

  • Imprint9816@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    3260·
    4 days ago

    Honestly I hope it shuts down. This provider caters to racists, fascists, misogynists and the like.

    Not to mention I don’t know why anyone would use a provider that was happy to warn people they aren’t trustworthy.

    It sounds like they are making excuses to take their “war chest” of money for legal expenses and give themselves one final bonus. Would not be surprised if this donation request ends up being one extra final payout before they close the service and ride out into the sunset.

    EDIT: lot of racists, fascists, and misogynists triggered by this comment lmao

        • wizardbeard@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          154·
          4 days ago

          Some additional context:

          It was made by 4chan users over a decade ago, when that sort of thing was accepted there as “edgy humor”. Make of it what you will. I think there’s been some growing up, since they don’t offer/support those domains now.

          • idegenszavak@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            7·
            4 days ago

            They still support them, they are just not on the landing page. You could select them during registration, maybe not all of them but I remember the African one from last time I created an airmail.cc address.

          • Imprint9816@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            1017·
            4 days ago

            If you need to “grow” to figure out Hitler and rape aren’t cool, I don’t want to support your service.

            More likely they realized any service worth their salt will blacklist those domains and any other domains associated with them so they tossed them.

        • rebelsimile@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          7·
          4 days ago

          Oh I may have been interested in helping them before, but since they’re sooo edgy I’m sure they can fuck themselves. I mean, fuck themselves. Help themselves. There it is. Also fuck them. :)

        • u/lukmly013 💾 (lemmy.sdf.org)@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          71·
          4 days ago

          Mind explaining why use the content warning for this?

          I get it when it’s used in some larger text perhaps with possibly triggering content, but this seems unnecessary. These domains don’t link to anything else than cock.li and airmail.cc either.
          Warnings that are overused loose value.

          • Unruffled [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.comMEnglish
            5·
            4 days ago

            As a rule of thumb I think CWs are a good idea if there is any content that is likely to upset someone and be reported. Exactly where the line should be is up for debate, but it seemed likely to me in this case.

    • QuazarOmega@lemy.lolEnglish
      29·
      4 days ago

      Not to mention I don’t know why anyone would use a provider that was happy to warn people they aren’t trustworthy.

      That’s the most honest statement, because that’s email by nature. If you don’t encrypt anything yourself with PGP, emails will be readable by the server and there is no way around it, some providers have automatic encryption between users of the same provider (e.g. Proton) but that’s most likely less than 1% of your email traffic, unless you really use it to chat (for which there are much better suited tools already), most the others will be on their popular service that doesn’t do encryption at rest, let alone in transit (and I mean one where they don’t hold the keys) and, if you want to contact them, you either put up with the fact that your conversation is exposed or you convince them to set up PGP

      • Imprint9816@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        615·
        4 days ago

        Yes email is an insecure form of communication. They didn’t say that. They said they, as in the service in general, were not trustworthy. There is a difference. Now they are asking you to donate in non refundable crypto. If it smells like a rug pull ran by fascists it probably is…

        • QuazarOmega@lemy.lolEnglish
          11·
          4 days ago

          I think that what I was talking about is exactly why they say what they say, for people that want to have more privacy/antonymy it’s there to tell them that the system itself is inherently limited so they can’t expect to be completely safe and the provider can do whatever they want or need to do by law (and here it seems from what they say, if it is 100% true, that they have been trying not to comply for the users’ sake) when you rely on their service.
          About the non-refundability, it’s true, though it’s not any more suspicious than the service in itself trying what they can to keep the users’ anonymity, so it is at least coherent, I guess it’s really up to how much you trust them there, you know what you’re getting into after all

          • Imprint9816@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
            107·
            4 days ago

            This is just tiring. If their “honesty” makes you ok with their implicit acceptance of Hitler, rape, and genocide then do you man.

            There isnt much to discuss. Your either OK with what these folks obviously stand for based on their past behavior or your not.

            • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.orgEnglish
              14·
              4 days ago

              There isnt much to discuss

              oh I think there is!

              you know what is tiring for fucks sake? that you are parroting your opinion basically, without pointing to any evidence. I don’t know this service, but do you call them rapists because they are known for doing that, or because they didn’t block users that were accused of rape?

              I don’t approve of rape and fascism either. but you know, private services don’t make a difference between anyone. why? because they can’t make sure the accusations are true. if they can by looking at your data, they are not a private service.
              would you ban encryption because rapists use it too? encrypted services, like proton and matrix? signal? do you think they are guilty of allowing to conduct rape in secret?

              even if it turns out the maintainers are rapist fascist fucks themselves, the previous paragraph stands, and I’m interested in your responses.

              • ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
                1·
                2 days ago

                He’s calling them rapists because they have the email domain rape.lol, and fascists because they have hitler.rocks. The other side says “They were edgy 4channers 10yr ago when they started.”

                My argument is “well you make it so hard to get a riseup acct which is the leftist equivalent, cock.li is the closest many of us could get.”

            • QuazarOmega@lemy.lolEnglish
              1·
              4 days ago

              I’m not ok with those things obviously, but I don’t know enough about them to say what I think is all, I’m just talking about the “technical” aspect and that at a base level I think that the effort to make a more anonymous service is respectable, though I would have never used a service like this personally. Of course that also implies that anything passing through it should be harder to track and moderate, for good and bad

      • Imprint9816@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        107·
        4 days ago

        Not the point in the slightest.

        Lot of people feel the need to explain to me why a service that used domains like rape.lol is totally fine to support.

        But sure, maybe you all just growing out of your pro hitler phase and I’m being unfair for not letting you grow.

    • Tregetour@lemdro.idEnglish
      105·
      4 days ago

      Honestly I hope it shuts down. This provider caters to racists, fascists, misogynists and the like.

      Who gives a fuck? Corporate social media cater to idiots too, just more common varieties.

      Why does it matter what Kanye tweets about if I enjoy his music? Why do the politics of my favorite FOSS program’s maintainer matter, or what commentary they include in documentation, or the presence/lack of a flag in a social media handle? Why does it matter that a public demonstration I’m at has some fellow demonstraters whose lifestyles/politics I find abhorrent?

      All you advertise to the world with this fearful mindset is that your behaviour will change on a dime given the slightest chance of bad optics. It’s a rotten way to live life.

      Governments and marketers absolutely love people who think like that.

      • Imprint9816@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        71·
        4 days ago

        You seem very proud to stand up for the other fascists in the room.

        Why does it matter what Kanye tweets about if I enjoy his music?

        Spouting antisemitic propaganda to millions of followers. Totally cool as long as his songs are hits. Got it. Strong moral compass you got there.

        You are very much the person I figured would stand up for cock.li

    • DeathsEmbrace@lemm.eeEnglish
      552·
      4 days ago

      To send cocks to people. You clearly aren’t a cock enthusiast. It’s a tor friendly email address. Anonymously making anything in this day and age is as rare as nuclear elements.

    • shaserlark@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      132·
      4 days ago

      I don’t like the crowd they cater to but in my heart I’m forever 9 years old and I want to keep my @loves.dicksinhisan.us email address

      Ok fuck them I hadn’t seen the removed domains