Axeia Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 I know there's a sticky for webhosts, but it doesn't mention their policies regarding questionable content. No no, it's not actually anything harmful, it just provides links to torrent sites based on the content on your disk. Ofcourse if you have illigal content on your disk it will create links to that as well.. and that's where the questionable comes in. I'm pretty sure 99% of the webhosts will kick you off if they obtain an email from some big company stating your site is illegal. So does anyone know of a host that doesn't give in to some random cease and desist notice? Everything I google up seems to be either related to: A) Porn B) Go unanswered (perhaps due to people not wanting to discuss such a thing in public and the answer being supplied by private message.. or just noone knows) I stress again, the content nor the downloads on the site would be illegal on its own, so I just need a host that knows its own rights. (self hosting is out of the question due to the costs) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 I stress again, the content nor the downloads on the site would be illegal on its own, so I just need a host that knows its own rights. (self hosting is out of the question due to the costs) That's an ongoing debate. It depends on whether the judge/jury regards it as facilitating crime. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axeia Posted May 29, 2009 Author Share Posted May 29, 2009 Well this is a script offered for download that downloads .torrents based on files on your own disk. The .torrent files wouldn't even be on the site, so that's even "less questionable" than a torrentsite. So basically any host that doesn't instantly give into a cease and desist notice would be good, as no sane company would ever bother to pay a lawyer to actually take it to court. (The don't start a fight if you can't win principle) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xylex Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 Why would a host risk fighting a legal battle for $10/month in revenue instead of just kicking you off? (The don't start a fight if you can't win principle) When the RIAA has the resources to bankrupt most hosting companies in legal fees long before a a case like this would ever make it to a courtroom, they always will win unless you can find someone who has the resources and the passion to take up a long drawn out legal battle over it. Most hosting companies are in business to try to make a profit, and not for setting legal precedence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 I'm not a lawyer and don't know much about contract law, but if you can find a host whose ToS doesn't prohibit the scenario you are talking about you should be set. I don't think they can just arbitrarily terminate your contract, so you could take them to court if they don't live up to their part of the agreement. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roopurt18 Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 Just host it in the Middle East. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xylex Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 I've never seen a hosting agreement that doesn't have some provision along the lines of "reserves the right to suspend or terminate accounts for any reason" or "determines in its sole discretion is harmful to its servers, systems, network, reputations, good will, or any third party." Even if such a clause wasn't there, at least in the U.S., businesses have an assumed right to refuse service to customer for any reason that isn't legally protected. (Legally protected reason are things like refusing service based on race). So if you take them to court, all you could really do is get your hosting fee back if they hadn't refunded it already. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 Mine doesn't. According to the contract I have with them, either party can terminate the contract should the other party be in breach of an obligation under the agreement. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be legal to just suddenly decide that you no longer wish to live up to a legally binding contract without any real reason. Of course they can put it in the contract, and in that case it may or may not hold up in a court of law depending on which country you're in. Either way you can just find a host that doesn't have something like this though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axeia Posted May 29, 2009 Author Share Posted May 29, 2009 Problem is noone wants to go to court, not me, not a host, not the people sending out Cease and Desist notices for no good reason. Lots of them seem to be sent out just to see if the host cooperates, if they don't then boohoo.. tough luck, as they don't have a foot a stand on they can't really start sueing (at least not while hoping to win). Response from some hosts is "Oh, I see mail about illegal content, site is something about torrents.. yep I don't want go to court, I'll cooperate". I don't want to go to court either as I got better things to do. Just host it in the Middle East. Link me one that's reliable? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roopurt18 Posted May 29, 2009 Share Posted May 29, 2009 I don't know any reliable hosts in the Middle East, but I'm sure if you check in certain channels you can locate one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nrg_alpha Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 ...I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be legal to just suddenly decide that you no longer wish to live up to a legally binding contract without any real reason. If by 'you', you are referring to the hosting provider, my provider (goDaddy) actually does have a clause in their TOS that gives them the ability to cancel accounts for no reason whatsoever (which I assume is legal, otherwise this would surely have been refuted and thus amended by now): Excerpt from http://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/agreements.asp?ci=8924 If You have purchased Services, Go Daddy has no obligation to monitor Your use of the Services. Go Daddy reserves the right to review Your use of the Services and to cancel the Services in its sole discretion. Go Daddy reserves the right to terminate Your access to the Services at any time, without notice, for any reason whatsoever. Granted, the idea of account cancellation 'for no reason whatsoever' being legal or not *might* depend on the national laws in question that govern such agreements (but I'm no lawyer either...) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corbin Posted May 30, 2009 Share Posted May 30, 2009 Basically no host in a country on good terms with the major countries would not listen to a C&D order on a site like that. In my opinion, your site would be facilitating, as was earlier mentioned in the thread. I would be willing to bet that there would be some organization out there willing to gamble that a judge would think that too. If a site like that ever got super big, I would expect you to have legal issues. As such, if a site like that ever got super big, I would expect your web host to freak out. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axeia Posted June 1, 2009 Author Share Posted June 1, 2009 Seems like most torrent sites moved to swedish hosts, the ones stating explicitely that they know their rights and are willing to fight for them in court are expensive though.. very expensive even. So I settled for an affordable swedish host, just hoping they know their rights, or that their location is enough to prevent mail from even being sent. Probably all in vain as I'd prolly get 1 visitor a month.. but mweh, better safe than sorry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steelmanronald06 Posted June 3, 2009 Share Posted June 3, 2009 Your best bet is a splash page, like your index.php page, that has your ToS on it. On that page just say something along the lines of: [site name] does not host or support any of the .torrents found on this site. We use a software that scans each users local disks, searches the web for .torrents that match the results from the disk, and displays links to those external torrents. We are in no way affiliated with any of these external sites, nor do we take any responsibility for any illegal material obtained. That should be enough to release you from any type of lawsuit. Then it is up to whoever wants to sue to find which site is actually hosting those torrents and shutting them down instead of you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axeia Posted June 3, 2009 Author Share Posted June 3, 2009 Most likely going to have other unrelated content which would be hellah annoying with a splash page (never liked them anyway), but its certainly worth considering for the download page itself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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