Months ago I tried out freehosting and was hosting my own sites on my own server. Back then I just got a generic terms of agreement from an old host that let me use it and changed their name to mine.

BUT I was on another message board and was told that in order to legally protect yourself from bad people who might spam or have illegal material on your servers you need to actually file certain paperwork for your business?

yet this person wouldn't give referals on the process saying they won't provide legal advice and my current colocation host and a couple others I emailed wouldn't tell me either?

what the hell is up with that? If their are some forms that need to be filed at a local level or with the copyright office why can't people easily find out where to go so they can do it themselves to protect themselves instead it being some secret?

Specifically I will be doing free and paid hosting again and simply want to protect myself legally. If some ass spams or hosts illegal files I want to do everything possible to get rid of the problem and/or report them. Im not down with being a part of illegal crap just to make money.

Anybody have any concrete information on the issues? Surely big hosts have to know so why will nobody share with me?

thanks for any info!

Try this link, it might help
http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?threadid=9512

Damac,

I believe what you are referring to (but don't know it) is the provision of the DMCA (Digital Millenium Copyright Act) that, in order to ensure that ISPs cannot be held liable for copyright infringements located on sites hosted on their servers, requires the ISP/web host to file with the copyright office.

Specific details about this (as well as the forms you need to be filed) can be found at http://www.loc.gov/copyright/onlinesp/

I think that's what you're talking about, at any rate.

Jason

Jason,

That site and the form seems to say that you need to designate someone else to receive any notices of copyright infringement.

What if you are your own source? IOW, I suppose if you are a reseller you can name your upstream provider. Even then I'm not sure you can designate them without their OK. (I also checked their list of agents and some hosts that I know are primary providers aren't listed)

But what if you have your own server? Who do you designate?

Damac - FYI: Even with filing all the papers in the world, you may still get sued. It's just a defense, not shield. And given some of the court decisions recently you shouldn't take it lightly.

Originally posted by Jaiem
That site and the form seems to say that you need to designate someone else to receive any notices of copyright infringement.

Nope - you can name yourself. All that they need is the name, address, phone number, and e-mail address of the live human being who is responsible for handling such complaints. If that's you, then put yourself on the form. If you have someone working for you who you'd rather handle it, then put them.

They just require that there be a live human being responsible for handling complaints (otherwise, most companies would just say "send 'em to abuse@ourisp.com and we'll deal with it" without giving the specific information about the specific person).

So go ahead and put yourself down if you are the one who should handle those complaints for your company.

Jason

thanks for the link I have also seen some companies doing what I do on that list and some not, huh.

I understand that people like to point out the what ifs but I have not heard of any charges being brought against any company or webmaster on the net in the US for being a host. Everybody down the line would be responsible in some way and some big companies would be coming under fire.

Basically what this illegal crap comes down to is porn as we all know and idiots doing bad stuff like mp3's or warez with their accounts. But again how many hosts have you seen shut down? I would think this would be a big story if it happened. Now supposedly after what I have read its possible local authority can haul any conspiritor into court for obscenity laws, etc. and it being a federal crime you could get jail time. But again when has this happened? I think this is a case of their are definately whack laws on the books right now but when a judge sees a case that is messed up they won't go after people to the letter of the law if your not a person or company contributing to the crap on the net. If somebody can contact you and you take care of disputes and cooperate and are found to do all you can like make customers agree to a tos, etc. you should be ok and if we do start seeing cases from webmasters in conservative states being jailed for this kind of thing then we have to worry, but I have total faith that prosecutors and the government dont have the funding for this and don't want to go after these types of people right?

I have dealt with copyrighted images on my server and I had lawyers contact me very nicely and I would talk to them on the phone and give them contact information for the user and all were allowed warnings.

adult material I don't think any precedent has been set at all. Tons of sites still operate and we don't have webmasters being shut down for using legally licensed material even if hardcore. The laws are too broad and the internet really hasn't been defined when it comes to community standards.

now illegal stuff like cp is sadly something I have seen a few times over my years on the internet and I have reported every url, luckily none of this on my own servers but it could happen.

I think their must be a difference between a host with terms and conditions(for example I have seen some openly host warez and mp3) and really aren't turning their head and take care of things, should be fine or else every damn provider on the net from huge companies like att, etc. are liable when it comes to stuff being transported over their backbones and connections and thats why I feel their really is no risk in hosting even adult sites(yes I have).

Am I off base here in my thinking?