Results 1 to 20 of 20
-
11-23-2011, 11:46 PM #1Junior Guru
- Join Date
- Nov 2011
- Location
- Chicago or Florida
- Posts
- 179
Reseller Business Liability for Customer TOS Violations
Can anyone comment on reseller liability (in a business sense) relating to reseller-customer web host TOS violations. Specifically, say I get a reseller account at some web hosting company. I then set up a marketing company, get some customers, and provide billing/tech support. One of my customers starts spamming or posts content that violates my host's TOS. Do most/all/some web hosts realize they need to shut down only my customer or is it common for them to shut me down completely (including my good customers)?
The reason I ask is it seems to me that there is a gray area here for anyone who considers reselling rather than running their own servers. Unless you can be confident the host will properly enforce any shut down action, you risk losing rule-abiding customers.
-
11-24-2011, 12:01 AM #2Junior Guru
- Join Date
- Nov 2011
- Location
- Chicago or Florida
- Posts
- 179
I started reading the Hostgator TOS. Here is a quote:
HostGator will hold any reseller responsible for any of their clients actions that violate the law or the terms of service.
I would love to know about hosts (if you can't post here please PM me) who understand and respect my concern.
-
11-24-2011, 12:08 AM #3Junior Guru
- Join Date
- Nov 2011
- Location
- Chicago or Florida
- Posts
- 179
From Bluehost:
In the event that a Reseller or a Reseller's user is determined to be in violation of the Terms of Service, the Reseller shall, upon receipt of notice of the violation, take prompt action to ensure that the account in question is updated to be in full compliance with the Terms of Service.
-
11-24-2011, 01:07 AM #4I like pie!
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
- Location
- Singapore
- Posts
- 2,637
It actually depends on what the terms the companies set. For most companies they will only suspend your customer sites and instruct you to terminate or remove the content within 24-72 hours. It's a rare situation that they will be suspending your whole reseller unless you are the abusive account.
It all depends, read before you signup. Easy trick
-
11-24-2011, 01:29 AM #5Retired Moderator
- Join Date
- Feb 2005
- Location
- Australia
- Posts
- 5,849
Like it or not, ultimately you are going to be held responsible for the clients you sign up. And while most reseller providers will only suspend the spammer client on the first occasion, if it starts to become a repeating pattern any decent provider would show you the door. This isn't just about resellers either - even on a VPS or dedicated server, no upstream provider enjoys the hassle of delisting their IPs that have been blacklisted for spam.
Instead of looking for "understanding" providers you should be more concerned about how to prevent the problem in the first place. eg. not offering free or anonymous accounts, verifying contact details and limiting outgoing mail.Chris
"Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them." - Laurence J. Peter
-
11-24-2011, 01:30 AM #6Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Mar 2009
- Location
- Miami, Florida
- Posts
- 20,777
In most cases, the company will just suspend the offending site unless the issue is caused by gross neglect of the reseller
Also, when did BlueHost start offering reseller packages?
-
11-24-2011, 03:30 AM #7Junior Guru
- Join Date
- Nov 2011
- Location
- Chicago or Florida
- Posts
- 179
Please be aware that I said "understand . . . this concern." I did not say "understanding." I think you may be changing the context of what I said with the way you quote me. I think you may also be implying that I am somehow not wanting to act in good faith which is simply not true.
I am looking for fairness. A reseller TOS should articulate the responsibilities of a reseller (monitor accounts, enforce rules, handle support, etc) and also the responsibilities of the ISP. If a reseller spends time and money to build a hosting resale business and makes an honest and good faith effort to follow the ISP's rules (which are generally just common sense for the cost of the service), he should not have to live in fear that one idiot customer who while searching the internet for ways to increase traffic finds a site willing to sell him a "perfectly legal double opt-in mailing list" to spam for 20 bucks. This has to simply be inevitable in the web hosting business.
Verifying details and limiting outgoing email will not render any host immune to abuse nor will any other measure. Based on the Hostgator example term above, the host has immediate grounds to terminate the reseller and all the reseller's business based on their own arbitrary reading of the situation. To me this is unconscionable but I don't think it's worth running a business hoping a judge might agree. Moreover, just think about the potential liability a reseller may face (or just the overbearing anger) if a whole array of websites go down based on no fault of his own.
Web hosts can't guarantee all their pre-screened customers will follow the rules so how can they expect the same from a reseller? These sorts of terms are simply a sucker's game. (Maybe that's just the nature of web hosting where everything is "unlimited" and free?)
Unless there are reputable reseller programs that articulate not only the rights of the host but also the reseller, it seems foolish to me for anyone to be a reseller rather than getting a VPS and a CPanel license. Unless, of course, you consider yourself a particularly lucky person.
-
11-24-2011, 03:41 AM #8Junior Guru
- Join Date
- Nov 2011
- Location
- Chicago or Florida
- Posts
- 179
From the k-disk.net TOS (since he was nice enough to reply to my post):
Depending on the seriousness of the infraction, we will issue you a Written Notice of the infraction. You will have 24-48 hours to confront your customer and remove the restricted content or suspend the customers account. If the infraction is in serious violation of our terms of service, then we may suspend the account on the root level.
-
11-24-2011, 03:57 AM #9Junior Guru
- Join Date
- Nov 2011
- Location
- Chicago or Florida
- Posts
- 179
Here's InnoHosting (which happens to be a very popular company advertised on this site:
4.1 The reseller/VPS customer is liable and responsible for all actions of their account and subaccounts created by the reseller/VPS customer. As the reseller/VPS customer you agree to accept all responsibility and liability for your actions and the actions of your subusers either directly or indirectly.
4.2 Terms of Service violations as a result of a subuser account being exploited with or without knowledge will be the responsibility of the reseller/VPS account holder.
4.2a Resellers & VPS customers are responsible for the content of the accounts they create. If those accounts are hacked/abused, the reseller will be accountable for all costs and liability.
. . .
4.4 The legal liability and legal responsibility of the subaccounts of the reseller/VPS belongs to the reseller/VPS customer.
4.5 InnoHosting reserves the right to financially charge the reseller/VPS customer for any contract violation.
4.6 If an IP assigned to a VPS client is blocked and/or blacklisted, InnoHosting will impose a non-negotiable $100.00 penalty fee payable within 24hrs. InnoHosting reserves the right to take further action should this bill remain unpaid.
-
11-24-2011, 04:23 AM #10Retired Moderator
- Join Date
- Feb 2005
- Location
- Australia
- Posts
- 5,849
No, that wasn't my intent. I just think you're placing way too much importance on the precise wording of the ToS. (But congratulations on being one of the few to read them ). As a general rule a hosting provider's ToS is written in their own favour - to give them the right to terminate your account if they feel the need. I doubt you'll find any ToS that aren't like that, nor any decent provider that will terminate you for no reason if you act in good faith. IOW, there isn't a direct link between the wording of the ToS and what actions the provider will take in any particular circumstances.
But again, in case the point isn't getting through, you will be held responsible for your clients' behaviour.
Unless there are reputable reseller programs that articulate not only the rights of the host but also the reseller, it seems foolish to me for anyone to be a reseller rather than getting a VPS and a CPanel license.
Unless, of course, you consider yourself a particularly lucky person.Last edited by foobic; 11-24-2011 at 04:28 AM. Reason: additional
Chris
"Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them." - Laurence J. Peter
-
11-24-2011, 04:31 AM #11Junior Guru
- Join Date
- Nov 2011
- Location
- Chicago or Florida
- Posts
- 179
-
11-24-2011, 04:45 AM #12Moving the Web Forward
- Join Date
- Jun 2010
- Location
- Modesto California
- Posts
- 6,858
I've seen upstreams shut down entire dedicated servers because of one account spamming on the server. Its really going to depend on the company and the situation. I would take the advice foobic gave you and focus on ways to prevent people from abusing accounts created inside of your reseller, because at the end of the day, you will be held responsible.
Looking for an awesome VPS Offer? CLICK HERE
"Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is not enough, we must do." – Bruce Lee
-
11-24-2011, 10:18 AM #13Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Sep 2003
- Posts
- 3,857
So, for us not to be 'clowns' I suppose we should accept the liability of our clients, why not even include a lawyer free with all our packages so they can do as they please, host what they want, legal or otherwise while we stand ready to spend however much money it takes to defend their unlawful activities?
The word 'clown' certainly does come to mind.
-
11-24-2011, 11:04 AM #14Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- May 2004
- Posts
- 4,076
Why not be an affiliate instead of a reseller? Unless said host's TOS also puts that liability on the affiliate.
-
11-25-2011, 05:59 PM #15Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- Dec 2009
- Location
- Greece
- Posts
- 802
The hosting company has to act immediately and suspend the abusive account,to protect the rest of your clients,as well as all the other clients hosted on the server.Then work with you to fix the issue with the client.
Coming soon...
-
11-25-2011, 11:08 PM #16Web Hosting Master
- Join Date
- May 2009
- Location
- Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
- Posts
- 1,783
If we see the clients heart is in the right place, we will certainly work with them. This has worked well for us in the past and builds trust.
If we see the clients heart is in the wrong place we take action usually resulting in a nasty post about us or "review" on a forum heheU.S.A. High Resource allocation global cloud hosting serving 310,000 clients since 2008 | Offering both cPanel & DirectAdmin
WebsitePlex.com | Instant Activation | Alpha, Master, Reseller & Cloud Hosting
Recurring Affiliate Program Pays 20% of total revenue for life | 30 Day Trial
-
11-26-2011, 08:56 PM #17Web Hosting Guru
- Join Date
- Feb 2010
- Location
- Oregon
- Posts
- 310
Coming down hard on the first offense is like using Mace first, before asking them to move! But some do.
Hostmy1stweb.com - Affordable Web Hosting
HOSTING l SSL l DOMAINS l MODULES l SUBMISSIONS l AFFILIATES
Providing low cost "Value" Hosting since 1999
-
11-27-2011, 11:22 AM #18Retired Moderator
- Join Date
- Oct 2003
- Location
- Scotland, UK
- Posts
- 2,916
This was the approach I always adopted. For people starting out, it can often seem a bit crazy and they need a bit of hand holding - it's a learning experience for them. As long as people are acting responsibly and taking comments on board, I think it's important to support them - and this will normally only pay dividends when it comes to upgrading to a larger package, VPS, server etc...!
Alasdair
Long time ex-host, ex-billing software owner/developer/support staff. Recent lurker.
-
11-29-2011, 09:14 PM #19WHT Addict
- Join Date
- Feb 2008
- Location
- South Florida
- Posts
- 108
I think most good hosts will suspend just the domain / account in question. They should also contact you as the reseller so you are aware of the action being taken.
Michael Caputa – President – Web Results Inc
REAL RESULTS FOR REAL REWARDS
www.webresultsinc.com | follow us @webresultsinc
design | hosting | e-commerce & shopping carts | app development | fax-to-email | announcer pro
-
11-30-2011, 12:42 AM #20Aspiring Evangelist
- Join Date
- Jul 2009
- Posts
- 403
... That reminds me to update our ToS to reflect that. Sigh, that means getting the ToS reviewed by Legal. Yay!
★ Nicholas @ EidolonHost
★ Blesta and InterWorx Reseller. See WebHost Licenses for details.
★ We have Let's Encrypt Support
Similar Threads
-
VPS Reseller, Why people use it? How does the business model attract them?
By Mohamed Meligy in forum VPS HostingReplies: 4Last Post: 11-13-2011, 06:23 PM -
Hostgator.in & Google's Fantastic Business Model
By bhunkus in forum Web HostingReplies: 9Last Post: 11-07-2011, 02:30 AM -
Business Model of Master Reseller?
By Joshy Boi in forum Reseller HostingReplies: 6Last Post: 09-26-2010, 04:20 PM -
how does the business model work? pricing: shared vs reseller
By alewela in forum Web HostingReplies: 7Last Post: 08-03-2006, 03:34 AM -
Reseller Business Model
By fairfax in forum Reseller HostingReplies: 15Last Post: 06-07-2005, 03:49 AM