ok, let me ask everyone's opinion on this, I am hosting some one for free that was a tester for us on our servers. I went to his php board and find people posting things on were to get free software and other things. Basically in my opinion it is a warez site, now since he is not sending files out for people to download, would I still be liable for hosting him? Meaning it is just a chat board, But I don't feel it would be in our best interest to keep hosting him. What do yo guys think?

Does the site violate your TOS/AUP?

I think you schould delete it because links to one if just as bad as hosting it.

Not really because he is not sending the software to people they are just chatting about it and where to get it.

not a lawyer

I think you're fine legally as you're not hosting commercial software on your servers, but there is a question over knowing they're talking about it and directly people to places where they can get it.

At the very least it's a judgement call over morals and ethics.

Greg Moore

I would say boot him and avoid future problems. All it takes is 1 file to be posted on his site and your bandwidth shoots thru the roof and you are at risk of being shut down.

I had this problem myself with a user who had a gaming site. He posted a file for the game (completely legal) but then he advertised it on a major gaming website. Since I had no BW enforcement in place, i quickly received a bill for around $2000 from my provider.

Also 9 times out of 10, these forums that talk about warez, are actually using illegal copies of the forum software itsself. I am not sure if this is the case with your client but I know this happens with vbulletin all the time.

Originally posted by GlideTech
(completely legal) but then he advertised it on a major gaming website. Since I had no BW enforcement in place, i quickly received a bill for around $2000 from my provider.


And that would be your own fault for not having a way to limit him...... Its his job to make his site popular.. Its your job to give him the hosting he paid for, if he paid for 10gb xfer, then thats all you give him...

And I don't see how you letting a user go over bandwidth really applies to this... No offense....

Originally posted by The Prohacker


And that would be your own fault for not having a way to limit him...... Its his job to make his site popular.. Its your job to give him the hosting he paid for, if he paid for 10gb xfer, then thats all you give him...



Hence the question is, what rights does a free user have? Are they even bound by the TOS? Is the host at all obligated to continue to provide a level of service? No doubt a gray area. With any customer, you are assuming a level of risk by providing services. In this case, the risk sounds like it may be higher than normal. So you are assuming a high risk, with no possible return.

From a logical standpoint you should be able to drop them - some hosts drop *paying* customers that easily. So it comes down to conscience, really. If you need to let them go but hate to do it, I would contact them and let them know your position, and encourage them to either consider a paid plan, or give them a comfortable grace period to move elsewhere.

In your shoes, I would have the same hesitation, but from a business standpoint there's really no reason you should feel obligated to host him.

There was an old multipaged thread in the Running a Webhosting Biz forum where a person was in your situation. Has that thread been deleted? I couldn't find it...all I remembered was that it involved a Vietnamese community but when I tried searching for "giangvu" I got nothing...maybe I should brush up on my memory or Viet, hrm.

It's hard to say if you can get in trouble, because he is not physically hosting it, nor is he, himself, providing the links, the users of his board are. Might want to contact a Lawyer that specializes in stuff like this.