Hi,

I'm a newbie at this, I've had a Geocities website for more than 2 years, and my parents said I could have my own webspace for my 16th birthday (it was last week). I've been cramping my fingers looking up what could be a good webhost, and I'm glad I found this site! Anyway, I'm thinking abut using Lunarpages.

I will have a fansite for a music group, therefore it will be pretty content heavy. Lots and lots of pictures, audio clips (7MB total), some videos (but only a few WMV that are no more than 2mb), and did I mention lots of pictures?

Also, the site's layout is all graphics. But I think the pages will not take too long to load.

Any feedback would be appreciated. Once again, I'm a newbie and I know nothing about this kind of thing! I only know how to make a good website. ;)

Thanks!!

www.Lunarpages.com does have some enticing plans for the price. I think your biggest concern would be what type of content you will be hosting.

From their site:

You agree not to infringe any copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, or other proprietary rights of any third party, including, but not limited to, the unauthorized copying of copyrighted material, the digitization and distribution of photographs from magazines, books, or other copyrighted sources, and the unauthorized transmittal of copyrighted software.

This is pretty common legal lingo.

Yes, but I'm pretty sure you're allowed to use them if

a. You took them
b. They are from the official site (this I'm not sure)

b. That is probably not correct. The official sites are probably copyright protected.

anyway, I don't mean to be rude, but this is not the kind of help I want. Please. Besides, how does any fansite with screen caps and album scans exist??

When it comes to fansites, I would think a music group would encourage them. Can only mean more interest and sales. I think you'll be fine taylor87. :)

As long as the actual music group/label doesn't complain, that's fine... :)

Be safe, Contact RIAA and ask for more information about pictures and other media content. You do not want to risk being sued by them for hosting content that is copyrighted by a band or group.

Yadda yadda...We fully cooperate with local and federal authorities regarding copyright infringement. If contacted we will be forced to act responsibly of course, however unless they are distinctively copyrighted, we are not able to actively monitor our servers for copyright infringement.

(We aren't small, we do have a legal team who we rely upon)

So basically you are saying is it's ok as long as you don't get caught.

Um, no. :)

Not at all. That was really stretching what I'm saying. From a legal standpoint, hosts should remain passive, in order to keep from being legally liable for the content.

However, as far as pictures go, it's not our place to judge what is a copyright violation and what is not, and the RIAA/BSA/etc do a great job of that :)

In the end, basically we don't employee a lawyer, or an abuse department to actively check our servers for copyrighted material, we will act promptly on it when alerted, but it's not our position to check them.

To be fair, that has become almost a required stance for hosts/DCs nowdays. If you don't monitor and people put copyrighted material on your servers, for the most part, you're not liable (if in the TOS you prohibit it, etc.) If you monitor your servers and some gets on there that you don't catch, then you are liable.

Well... thanks to everyone for discussing that, but please, you need to understand I need help! So Lunarpages would be a good place to start with this type of site?

Yeah, we're not really answering your question, but I think that answers your question. :) It doesn't look like anybody has any red flags about lunarpages, and since Nick from Lunarpages is even active on this board, one could consider that a good sign.

The thread kinda turned towards copyright issues with fansites, and it's not really what you're asking about. That road leads to good faith / reasonable use / etc and who knows what else.

Originally posted by getweb
and since Nick from Lunarpages is even active on this board, one could consider that a good sign.
Active hosts on WHT means little but as long as legal issues are not a concern from what I read, Lunarpages might be what you are looking for. (Though I do not condone snickn's perspective who represents Lunarpages.

Originally posted by NexDog
When it comes to fansites, I would think a music group would encourage them. Can only mean more interest and sales. I think you'll be fine taylor87. :)

You'd think so, but one of our customers made a tribute page to the "wonderment that is: The Lord of The Rings"

He made a truly superb graphic (i'm talking the quality that movie companies would wish to pump out) and i was contacted by Warner Brothers and New Line, demanding that the person's site be taken down, or they would sue both my own company, and the person in question.

The reason given? "The website is misleading to visitors, as it portrays likeness to several lord of the rings characters"

I told Mark from WB " Well, isn't that the point, it's a fan site, i can see no harm in what he's doing, he made the graphics, and isn't selling anything"

One of our support guys spoke to the person who ran the fansite and asked him what he wanted to do, and the guy just gave up, and said, in not too many words "**** em then".

We trawled through that site over and over again, and there was not one single misleading article in it, actually quite the opposite, he gave links to the official sites telling people to go visit the "true online of home the LOTR phenomenon".

Our lawyer urged us to back the customer, after the complaint was forwarded to his office, and he checked the site out himself, but in the end the guy who ran the site simply shut it down, and probably had a sour taste in his mouth regarding WB and New Line

Originally posted by FTPguy
Active hosts on WHT means little but as long as legal issues are not a concern from what I read, Lunarpages might be what you are looking for. (Though I do not condone snickn's perspective who represents Lunarpages.

Perspective on what?

I think somehow he believes I should actively scan 20,000 websites for copyright issues. If we had 25 clients, that'd be possible, but unfortunately, it's absolutely impossible to scan 20,000 clients for copyrighted content, hence we must remain passive and rely on reports from the appropriate agencies

Like I said, then how does any fansite exist? It doesn't make sense to tell one person (me) it's wrong, considering there are thousands of such websites.

I personally don't have a problem with fansites, and I've seen quite a few which have survived years, so I'm assuming they aren't a huge issue to the agencies as long as you make it obvious you aren't a representive of them.

Most basic packages would be sufficient to host a fan site. You may want to pay attention to Data Transfer. Start off with maybe 2-3GB of data transfer, and if your site becomes very popular, simply purchase more or upgrade your account.

Fan Pages are very common online and unless your blatently slamming a celebrity or movie, etc, chances are no one is going to say anything.

It's usually the hate sites who modify the images that anger the big guys. I think a lot of people are scared of the RIAA, MPAA, etc...so unless you're giving away copyrighted MP3s or software, you really have nothing to worry about.

Note: Most sites always include a little blurb stating if anything here is in violation of copyrights, simply email us and we'll remove it.

Thanks for the help everyone. :) Puts my mind at rest.

Now: for the task of signing up! I have a feeling the process is going to be a little difficult.

Originally posted by snickn
I think somehow he believes I should actively scan 20,000 websites for copyright issues. If we had 25 clients, that'd be possible, but unfortunately, it's absolutely impossible to scan 20,000 clients for copyrighted content, hence we must remain passive and rely on reports from the appropriate agencies
Nick, perhaps you would be better off not thinking then? Sticking to the subject...

The potential client said that he would have copyrighted images with out permission on his site.
Originally posted by taylor87
Yes, but I'm pretty sure you're allowed to use them if

a. You took them
b. They are from the official site (this I'm not sure)
Yet Lunarpages says no problem? (Unless proper authorites contact them.) Would make one tend to think that as long as Lunarpages get's their money, they could care less unless pushed to have illegal content removed from their servers.

I am not entirely clear on the copyright situation, but unless this user is using the images to sell something there shouldn't be any issue in using them.

Fan sites are great, and anyways, I think the RIAA has their hands tied up right now with Kazaa users.

Did I ever say "no problem"? If so that's a mistake, however, this is not on subject. We remain passive, we do not monitor our servers, due to the impossibility of doing so. This is the same attitude that verisign/registrars take to domains, you can register whatever you want, because it's impossible for them to check the potential legality of each one, however if contacted they will fully cooperate with authorities when needed.

Anyway, even this isn't on subject, and if you'd like to continue discussing the legality of whether to be reactive or proactive in monitoring for copyrighted images on your server, open a thread in "Running a webhost" where it's appropriate.

With this said of course, by no means are we seen as a haven for warez/spammers whatever, we react very quickly to close accounts, however we are proactive on spammers, since this is possible.

Hey guys, I didn't mean to start problems. Please don't be so hard on nick.

I have opened up my account with Lunarpages. I am looking forward to getting started on my site.

taylor, it's all love brother don't worry :)

I don't take anything personally on this list, for a variety of reasons :)

lol, I don't mean to be misleading, my name's Erin and I'm a girl. ;)

Sorry Erin, anyway's welcome to Lunarpages Erin, and don't worry about me, I can handle those who get too bored and decide to troll.

FWIW, I just spoke to a lawyer regarding this, and his answer was :

Be an appropriate system admin, that's the only thing you can do, and you can be legally bound too.

There's not enough cases yet to decide what is considered appropriate, however he did say that trying to check 20,000 sites definately doesn't fall under the neccessary actions. :)

::claps for snickn::

Good holding your own in this thread! You really lucked out Erin... you got a human for host! :D

You guys are ridiculous. How about instead of telling Nick how to run LunarPages, run your own companies. If the RIAA, MPAA, or any other organization has a problem with something LunarPages hosts they can easily send them a letter, email or call them.

Of course you guys are all trying to look perfect here in front of the WHT audience. I'm sure you all have some copyrighted material on your servers or websites too without knowing. Of course you'll never admit that.