I just realised that the MegaLinks subreddit wouldn’t have had to close up if it was selfhosted on the fediverse, the idea of independent servers for each major sub is fascinating.
That being said, I’m sure it would have ran into new issues.
Edit: Changed ML to MegaLinks.
This instance is hosted in Germany, one of the countries with the strictest anti-piracy laws? Seems like a very risky decision (I’m aware that a lot of the good and affordable hosting providers are German).
That shouldn’t be a problem as long as German law is followed. I don’t believe it’s illegal to link to illegal websites in Germany, so unless someone actually uploads illegal content here, I don’t think it should be any more of a problem than r/piracy ever was.
Also, the host (Contabo) may be a German company, but they do sell services in other countries as well. Based on traceroutes I think the server is located in Germany but theoretically it could be a UK/USA/Singapore/Japan/Australia based server. The latency I’m seeing between me and the server probably rule out most of those countries but UK servers are still a possibility.