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Suggestions on the best ecommerce web host(s) with quality templates and great hosting plans?

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Linux Cpanel shared hosting: 600 GB disk space, 6 TB bandwidth, free domain, unlimited databases and ftp accounts, web hosting cheap and pro at Hostony

It is not your fault you got confused. You probably already know that choosing the wrong website hosting plan can be detrimental to your business.

Here is a common question we hear often from our website design clients:

I’m having trouble selecting an ecommerce web-host. The templates most offer are just blah and I’m having a hard time finding one that offers all that I need. I am willing to pay up to about /mo. for a good host that includes: CC processing, SSL, allows unlimited products or at least 750-1000, shipping options, tax calculator & search engine on site. As far as template go, I could buy one for about dollars, which is about all I have left in my budget to do so, but I wouldn’t know how to install it & don’t have Adobe PhotoShop either, which seems to be needed for most templates. I do have GIMP, can I use that instead? Any suggestions? Thanks.

Do not make the mistake of thinking unlimited bandwidth and diskspace is all you need in a hosting service. There are a lot more to ask yourself before you decide on which web hosting is the best for you.

What Do You Really Need in a Web Host?

Use this list to check for what you truly need:

  • Does the company reputation matter to you – the brand name, history, dependability, stability, and profitability of a company can mean a lot to you if you are a web designer, hosting reseller or a website developer.
  • General support – what kind of support do you need? Is chat support important? What other support methods do you prefer. What kind of response time can you tolerate?
  • Technical support, Sitebuilder and Script Installer – are you tech-savvy or do you need as much help as you can? Do you need to build a website quickly? Do you need to install WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, Magento or other free scripts?
  • Support hours – know if you need real 24/7 support. Where are you located?
  • Server location – do you know that local, regional, national, or worldwide server makes very little difference to most visitors. Reliability and uptime is more important most of the time.
  • Growth possibility – do you need a host that can accomodate your growth? The best website hosts should have options for you to upgrade your plan.
  • Backups – can you do your own website backup? Is a good frequency and easy recovery of the backup something you should consider in a host? If what you need is the best online backup, you probably do not want a website hosting after all.

Now let us review the 10 important factors to identify in an excellent web hosting. An outstanding web host:

  1. lets you try their service for free or at super low price,
  2. has friendly Live Chat available 24/7 so it does not matter where you are in the world,
  3. gives huge webspace at no extra cost,
  4. offers more than enough bandwidth at no extra cost,
  5. can be easily upgraded to VPS or one of the best dedicated server plans if and when your business require.
  6. gives unlimited add-on domains,
  7. has excellent support and rated at least A+ by Better Business Bureau (BBB),
  8. has at least 30 days money back guarantee,
  9. has easy-to-use Site Builder for quick website creation,
  10. has Fantastico and QuickInstall to quickly install apps like WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, OSCommerce, ZenCart and more,

Many experienced web developers use Hostgator. If need a quality hosting plan, website experts usually recommend going with Hostgator because they are the best best domain host in the world today.

Linux Cpanel shared hosting: 600 GB disk space, 6 TB bandwidth, free domain, unlimited databases and ftp accounts, web hosting cheap and pro at Hostony

The Hostgator reviews will tell you that HG has an amazingly long, 45 days money back guarantee so you have ample time to test them out. They are rated A+ by Better Business Bureau which shows their commitment to customer satisfaction. You also do not have to pay for the first month. You can just try their fully functional hosting service – you pay only $ 0.01 (you need to use the exclusive coupon). Do you know any other hosting company that believe in themselves so much they can give you that kind of assurance? Anybody can grab an account from Hostgator for almost FREE.

Best Hostgator Coupons

Click the coupon below try Hostgator cPanel hosting for almost free. If you already know that Hostgator is what you want, you can even save 25% off the normal price.

Hostgator Compared with Other Web Hosts

No web hosting service is perfect. If you compare Hostgator with other hosts, they do not offer some things these companies offer:

  1. Free domain name – but you can easily get a domain name from the best domain registrar such as Godaddy or Namecheap for $ 10 or less. Do not forget that it is a hassle to take the free domain name you receive at a web host and move it to another host.
  2. You need to pay full price after your first invoice – you do not expect such great service and support at $ 0.01 forever, do you? Hostgator is not one of those free hosting service. It is like they say, you get what you pay for.

If you are unsure if HG can meet your needs, or you have specific question about something, try the Live Chat at HG. They are friendly, fast and knowledgeable. They are available for sales, billing or even technical support for 24/7 at no extra charge.

Hostgator coupon
Hostgator is having a 20% sale right now, but you can use the above coupon code for bigger savings.

Web Hosting Comparison

Linux Cpanel shared hosting: 600 GB disk space, 6 TB bandwidth, free domain, unlimited databases and ftp accounts, web hosting cheap and pro at Hostony

How Referral Marketing Can Benefit Web Hosts

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Even if the niche of web hosts are fully loaded with a lot of companies they are still one of the easiest to promote because you could write your own experience about them. There are also tools like GTMetrix, to help you see how fast and reliable your site is. And for web host businesses your customers usually stick with you unless something bad happens. Referral programs are the best way to promote this type of business.

The benefits of customer referral programs

Even statistics show that when it comes to buying or trying anything, people would consider recommendations from people they know over ads. And that makes referral programs a very powerful marketing strategy. Online reviews could also help boost the power of a referral program.

When it comes to referral programs, it’s more likely that your customers would be referring you to people who are looking for web hosting. Just like when you’re a wedding planner, your customer would refer you to another person they know that’s planning to get married, they definitely won’t refer you to a person looking for a house as it’s not the slightest bit related. When it comes to referrals, it is more aimed at your target audience which makes it more effective.

And the last best thing you could get from referral programs is the fact that it could turn into a cycle. Your customer referred you, the referred person enjoys your service so they refer you, and it goes on and on. Eventually, your program would grow and so would your business.

How do you setup a referral program?

So, are you finally convinced that referral programs could really make a difference for your web hosting business? Giving rewards in exchange for customers is totally worth it, especially if you get to prove that they will be happy with your service. So here are some things you should do as of setting up a referral program.

There are five things you should do when you are planning to start a referral program.

referral_marketing_benefits

  1. Find out what your customer would be happy for you to offer

If you have the right incentives, your referral program would definitely work. And they type of incentives would vary from your target audience to another. You have to make your reward one of the reasons why they want to promote you (aside from being happy with your service, of course). In order to know what incentive to use, you have to be able to understand your customer, and in order to achieve that you have to build a relationship with them and ask them or give them choices to choose from.

Rewards vary from cash, discounts, free trials, etc. You can offer them free services depending on their payment method whether they pay monthly or not. Just don’t forget to plan everything out before even starting.

  1. Make your customer want to refer you

Your customer would more likely promote you if it’s simple and quick to do. Everybody has their own preference when promoting, some prefer their blog, some on social media, some on forums, etc. So make sure that you allow them to choose where they are more comfortable to promote you in an easy way. But remember to always make your customer happy because that would be the main reason why your customers would want to tell their friends about you.

  1. Choose the referral software that would match all of your needs while still being good to your pocket.

There are a lot of referral programs that you could run on your own website. You can usually add them as a plug-in or add-on. But make sure that whatever you choose is compatible with your website or else it would be useless.  When you have figured how your customer would want to refer your business, you can start looking for referral program software that could do what your customer wants. Every referral software has their fair share of uniqueness when it comes to features and interface, so It’s usually more of a personal decision that should match your needs.

  1. You’ll have to promote your referral program

Not all of your customers would know if you have a referral program or not, having one wouldn’t mean they would automatically know. You’ll have to advertise and promote it.

You could advertise it by sending out emails, through social media posts, texts, invoices and so many other ways. You could also create a landing page for your referral program that entails details about what you offer, what they could expect as rewards, and what your customer needs.

  1. Make getting a reward easier

Some of your customers could be too busy or just not interested in joining a program. And those that do, should be prioritized to be kept happy. The more that they become happy with the benefits you give, the more that they continue in promoting you.

Another way to make getting rewards easier is by making the process simpler. Set up automated transfers if you are paying cash to make it quicker. No matter what your reward is, make sure that you keep it simple to achieve and be released.

How to promote your referral program

Make use of your email list

When you’re still starting to promote your referral program, you could make an email blast that would share all the necessary details. You should include a call to action button in it that would attract your customers by clicking on it and signing up. Email marketing is a way to market what you offer and at the same time keep your audience engaged. You also have to make sure that you use it to share new updates as well as upcoming updates to your email list. To make your email list better, it’s ideal to divide them into segments. That way, whenever you send out emails you could make it more targeted to their interests.

Let your website proudly wear it

Your referral program should have a real estate on a landing page. You can achieve this by adding a call to action on your website. There are many ways to do that, you could add a link on your header, a sidebar, and even a smack dab in the middle of your page to make customers sign up would do its work.

You could use website menus

If nobody is aware of your referral program then obviously it won’t work, right? So go ahead and make everyone aware that it exists! In the last 5 years, referral programs have been the bomb, people today aren’t just aware of it, they’re even aware of how to use them and what they’re for, actually, they even search for it! So if you don’t have a menu item or a section on your page dedicated to, it’s such a shame. You have to spark the curiosity of your visitors in order to increase your chance of turning them into your very own ambassador.

Bots

There’s a shift in paradigm in the world of technology as it’s being swept by a revolution of bots. Every brand are putting an effort into adding a bot interaction with its users. While many people who are focused on marketing have considered bots, there’s more focus on the ways it could boost ROI. But can you imagine if bots have the capability to upsell your referral program instead of just customer support and bookings?

Web Push Notification

For marketers around the world, web push notifications are such a fancy. Even when there’s obviously a debate on the rise of mobile between this, the web still is continuing to thrive. Web push notifications come in to get the attention of dormant users and also works as a playground for people who are promoting referral campaigns.

Bonus strategy to get more customers

Join Forum Discussions

For every niche, there are different forums, and in this forum, you will see people that are more likely interested in you. Join forums that talks about web hosting, try to contribute as much as possible and build a relationship with people in there. On your signature, you can use your URL to your website or to a page where you post special offers so when they click it could spark an interest. While helping people in related forums you are making more people know that you exist, meaning you are bringing more traffic to your business. Remember, be active and don’t just go there to invite, that could turn out negatively.

Conclusion

A referral program could work like a cycle that actually grows. You also gain the ability to keep and make your customers happier but at the same time attract new customers into your business. Your goal should be to set it up right to make sure it would work as an effective way to grow your customer base and lead to a bigger brighter business. So make sure that you choose the software that matches what you need, the right incentives, and an easy to use referral program to achieve more success.

Even if the web hosting industry is packed with a lot of companies, you still have the chance to grow if you have a successful referral program. Each person is looking for something different from hosts they use, problems could arise with some that could lead to their customers to look for another web host. As long as you make sure that your customers are promoting you and having a positive experience with your service, there’s a great chance that more people will know and try what you have to offer. Good luck!

The post How Referral Marketing Can Benefit Web Hosts appeared first on Web Hosting Geeks' Blog.

Web Hosting Geeks’ Blog

Should Web Hosts Offer Stock Images to Customers to Cut Down on Infringement?

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If you have ever done very much posting on the web, you have likely turned to images to help illustrate a point you were trying to make. When you pull that image from somewhere else on the Internet, do you ever consider who made it? Do you know if you have permission to post it on your website? This is an issue that many bloggers and website businesses in the U.S. and abroad face.

Countries all over the world are starting to crack down on copyright infringement, meaning users of images need to be more conscious about the permissions they have to use certain pictures. Should you as a web host offer stock images to customers so as to cut down on rampant infringement? There may be many benefits to doing so. 

The Infringement Predicament 

Nearly everything is just a click away thanks to the Internet. Information all over the world is available in just a few seconds. If you have the technological know-how, then taking information or images off of someone else’s page is also very simple. Many authors and creators attempt to mark their works in such a way that they cannot be used without identifying the original creator. Yet there are still people who take the work of others and tout it as their own. When this kind of use of someone else’s material falsely attributes work to another or infringes financially on the original creator, it is known as copyright infringement. While such infringement has always existed, it has become much easier to do thanks to Internet access. 

More Countries Are Joining the Copyright Battle 

Although the enforcement of copyright seems to be prevalent mostly in the United States, more and more countries all over the world are joining the copyright battle. Most countries have some sort of copyright law that protects a written piece of work for the life of the creator plus an additional 50 or more years after the creator’s death. Movies are usually copyrighted for 50 years following creation, and images may be copyrighted for at least 25 years after creation. 

Your Role in Copyrighted vs. Fair Use Material 

How does the use of copyrighted material affect you as a web host? It’s not like action is taken as soon as something that is copyrighted appears on a site that you are hosting. In most cases, there is only legal action if the original creator cites infringement. In this case, you and the client accused of copyright infringement would need to be notified and given a chance to take the material down. It’s often more of a nuisance than anything else, since many of your clients might not even realize they are breaking any copyright laws.

Fair use material, on the other hand, can be used on anyone’s website. In fact, there are businesses dedicated to providing customers with a wealth of stock images they can freely use—provided they subscribe to the service. With careful searching, there are also sites dedicated to providing copyright- and royalty-free images for anyone to use at no cost. 

What Options Do You Have? 

You have a few options when it comes to helping your customers avoid copyright infringement. You can notify your customers any time you find out they are using copyrighted material without permission. You can purchase smaller stocks of images and provide them to your clients with your hosting service. You can also create your own images and provide or sell them to your clients for use. 

Purchasing Smaller Stock Sources 

There are some companies that sell stock images at a specified price per image. If you want your customers to have a variety of images to use that are not tied up under copyright, you may be able to purchase a set of these images. There are many benefits to using stock images from another source.

  • You don’t have to stress about creating them
  • There are a variety of subjects and styles to choose from
  • The images are already appropriately sized for use on a website (in most cases)

There may be specific rules and regulations regarding the use of certain stock images. You will want to make sure that you are allowed to share whatever stock sets you purchase or download with your customers. You also might not be able to charge your customers for certain sets after purchase. Although stock images may help you and your customers avoid copyright infringement, make certain you are using and providing them to your customers appropriately. 

Starting Your Own Image Stock 

If you really want to avoid the risk of copyright infringement altogether, you can create your very own image stock. This may or may not be difficult to do depending on your skills as an artist or photographer. Although it can take some time to build up your very own stock, creating your own set has many benefits, including that you know who created the image and you may be able to charge extra for using them. In fact, creating your own image stock can be a great way to collect a little cash on the side, especially if you make the images available for purchase by more than just your hosting customers. 

Your Customers Aren’t the Only Ones Affected by Infringement

Although it might seem like a harmless act, copyright infringement is very serious. When someone uses another’s work without permission, it can affect the reputation and even the finances of the original creator. In essence, violating copyright is violating a part of someone else’s livelihood. As a web host, it is your duty to make sure your business is following the laws of your country, and that even images and work created in another country are used in compliance with that country’s copyright laws. When your customers break copyright laws, it affects you and the original creator of the work. If the fear of copyright infringement has you down, then you might consider offering stock images to customers in order to cut down on infringement. This lets you know where the images came from, and it can even earn you some extra income if you sell your own image stock. It also gives you a way to provide your customers with other options if you need to ask them to remove copyrighted images from their sites. You can help to cut down on the spread of copyright infringement. Take action today.

Top image ©GL Stock Images

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Why Entire Web Hosts Can Be Destroyed by Cyber Attacks

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It seems like more and more prominent web servers are getting hacked and attacked these days. If even the giants of online industry are susceptible to hacks and attacks, what are humble web hosts supposed to do? Cyber attacks can be devastating to a server, and even more devastating when they reach other servers from that original hosting server. What can you do? Understanding the threat of DDoS attacks and how you can avoid them should help you as a web host better protect your clients, who can in turn better protect their clients from the results of such an attack. 

What Are DDoS Attacks?

DDoS stands for Distributed Denial-of-Service. Have you ever tried to visit a web page only to have it error out or show up as unavailable? Most servers have a maximum capacity or bandwidth. DDoS attackers flood a server to try to reach that capacity. Once the server is full, it cannot accept any more visitors. Since the DDoS attack is flooding the server with fake visitors, this prevents real visitors from reaching and using the web pages on that server. 

One of the biggest problems with DDoS attacks is that the server cannot tell the difference between fake traffic and real traffic. Hackers are getting more creative and creating layered attacks that more closely resemble real traffic. Since these types of attacks can essentially cut off your server from everyone else, it is important to take them seriously. 

The Ripple Effect 

If the attack is only focused on your server, it’s not harming your customers, right? Wrong. If you are a web host and your server is getting flooded with fake requests, it also affects the web pages of the clients you are hosting. If those clients happen to also be hosting clients of their own, those pages can go down, too. This is known as a ripple effect. The attack happens at a central location, and the results spread out in all directions from there. In this case, when the server hosting the web pages goes down, all the web pages tied to that server also go down. 

The Real Damages 

At first glance, it might seem harmless to have a web page go down. If the page is strictly for informational purposes, there is likely to be minimal financial repercussions. Some web pages are much more than informational, however. What about your clients who have their businesses set up through your hosting service? When their pages go down, their customers are not able to look at their inventory or make purchases. In these cases, the financial repercussions can be disastrous—even if the page is only down for a few hours. If your customers cannot keep their business pages open on your server, they are likely to go somewhere else. Essentially, if a DDoS attack manages to bring down your server, it has the potential to completely destroy your web hosting business. 

Your Role as Web Host 

As the provider of hosting services to your clients, it is your responsibility to do everything within your power to protect the web pages linked to your server. Part of this is providing the proper bandwidth. You might need multiple servers to adequately keep your clients’ pages up and running. You should also take it upon yourself to investigate security services and software that may be better able to identify complex DDoS attacks. 

Use Multiple Methods of Protection 

To better protect your clients, consider using multiple methods of protection. You will want to be able to recognize a DDoS attack as early as possible. Having more bandwidth than you need can help with such attacks. Although the attacker might try to flood your server, if you have plenty of bandwidth, legitimate visitors might be able to get through for a little while. However, even if you have an extra 500% of bandwidth available, a DDoS attack will eventually flood it all. At the very least, the extra bandwidth can provide you with more time to identify and take care of the attack. 

Running Your Own Server 

There are things you can do when running your own server to also buy you more time. You can rate limit your router, cause half-open connections to time out, or even set lower thresholds for ICMP, SYN, and UDP flood drops. If you are able to identify a DDoS attack and have the means, you can also divert traffic to scrubbing software designed to remove malicious packets. These scrubbers are often used by large hosting providers. If you are a small web host, you will want to contact your ISP as soon as possible to help cut off the attack. 

Consider Using Mitigation Services 

Mitigation services can assist in monitoring the traffic on your web server to identify and fend off DDoS attacks. There are several different types of providers of mitigation services. If you have many clients that depend on your hosting services, then investing in such security is probably wise. These services assist in identifying malicious packages, rerouting them, and deleting them before they can flood your server and spread to your clients. DDoS attacks are constantly changing, and mitigation services are usually on top of the latest defense methods against the evolving attacks. 

Protect Yourself to Protect Your Customers

DDoS attacks are very serious. Although they might seem harmless at first glance, these types of attacks basically strangle your hosting business. By flooding your server, they can potentially flood the pages and servers of clients tied to your service. When this happens, web pages are cut off from potential customers and visitors. In order to protect your customers from the devastating effects of such an attack, you need to protect yourself. You can take pre-emptive action with larger bandwidth and software to help you identify malicious and fake packages. Even with these actions, however, you need the means to scrub those fake packages off of your server. Contacting your ISP is a good idea for smaller web hosts. You might also want to look into mitigation services that can monitor and protect you from potential attacks on a regular basis. If you are unfamiliar with DDoS attacks or your protection methods need updating, start researching such services right away.

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Government Surveillance: What Notice Do Web Hosts Owe Their Customers?

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As consumers increasingly utilize the Internet in many aspects of their daily lives, the challenge becomes enjoying the conveniences of online activities without sacrificing privacy. The mechanisms for protecting privacy continue to evolve as the focus of online activity transitions from laptops and desktop computers to smartphones and other portable devices. With enhanced surveillance from government agencies, do web hosts owe their customers notice that their websites and data has been read by other sources?

How Does The Government Access Personal Information?

The government may want private data for regulation implementation reasons or external intelligence inquiries. In fact, they can obtain your electronic records and communications through wiretapping, warrant, or subpoena. Some protection exists against access to email and additional online activities. The government does understand, acknowledge, and appreciate that some Internet activities justify safeguards. The challenge becomes deciding which Internet activities these protections affect.

Consider that current government surveillance can generate the following data from your web host:

  • Email header message in addition to the subject line
  • IP address
  • IP address of computers communicated with
  • A list of all sites visited

This capability leads to the emergence of two key policy questions stemming from the technical realities of the Internet today.

  1. Do we all have a reasonable expectation of privacy when we use the Internet?
  1. When a user encrypts Internet communications, does that entitle them to extended privacy? As a consequence, is the Internet less secure because of the possible need for the government to decrypt it?

What Are Acceptable Surveillance Measures?

The solution to these questions and also an indicator as to if the government is acting appropriately leads to one main issue. How do we know when web discussions are related to espionage, terrorism or criminal activity? The premise is that if they are, then the government should recognize them, be entitled to observe them, and provide a reasonable measure of security.

It seems plausible to conclude that Internet privacy should not extend to offenders. Additionally, the government should observe their communications whether or not encryption is present or perhaps especially if it does. Web hosts should focus on the threshold of how the determination is made to watch particular Internet communications or a specific level of communications. More importantly, an understanding should exist on who monitors and manages this determination.

Several distinct organizations establish appropriate criteria for surveillance in diverse ways. One perspective holds that before implementing monitoring, evaluation of the means, context, and intended uses are critical.

What Are The Means Used To Gather Data? 

Extensive unprocessed volumes of data retrieved from Internet traffic are collected and stored daily in data warehouses. Software is used to inspect social media posts, online purchases, files sent by email, and all web sites visited. Analysts have to defend why they suspect someone is communicating outside of the U.S. when requesting additional information. This raises questions, including:

  • Does the manner cause unfair or unjust psychological or psychological harm?
  • Does it overlook a personal boundary without approval, such as providing intimidating, false, or misleading information?
  • Does the method violate conjectures concerning how data will be handled, including the absence of secret recordings?
  • Does the technique generate invalid conclusions?

What Does Data Collection Reveal? 

Due to the extreme amount of data collected, storing the full contents of intercepted web traffic cannot usually exceed more than 30 days. However, the law permits the storage of some metadata for five years. Additionally, investigators can move specific documents to permanent databases when it becomes connected with and relevant to an ongoing and open-ended investigation. The law authorizes the targeting of certain individuals, allowing monitoring of all standards of communication, including Internet use, without their knowledge or consent. However, if the government wants private emails or social media posts, for example, it must request this data from the web hosts. All of this leads to more critical matters for web hosting consideration.

  • Should individuals provide consent web hosts for the data collection?
  • Are there systems for disputing the results, or for including optional data or explanations into the document?
  • Is the data sufficiently protected?
  • Is targeting broadly applied to all?

What Uses Are Authorized For The Data That Is Collected?

While the government is only allowed to intercept communications if at least one part of the conversation is outside of the United States, it does not have to distinguish this fact upfront. What this means is that is can collect bulk data and sort it all out at a later date. If the secured information belongs to an American, the investigator must destroy that information. However, this determination cannot always be made by a machine. It typically occurs after a human investigator analyzes it. The safeguards are in place to protect data obtained from U.S. citizens who are not relevant to an ongoing investigation, unless evidence of a crime exists in the information. This brings up the issues of using the collection of mass surveillance data.

  • Does the authorization of the method to gather information serve the objectives of the target of surveillance and not the particular aims of the government?
  • Does an appropriate balance exist between the essential nature of the intent and the price of the means?
  • Are the intentions of the data gathering legitimate? For instance, is there a distinct connection between the data obtained and the goal sought?
  • Can the gathered information cause unfair harm or damage to its subject? If so, how will an individual be protected?

What Are The Best Methods For Web Hosts To Acknowledge Government Surveillance?

The government must apply certain safeguards and address with web hosts the practices and regulations governing surveillance of individuals and access to otherwise private information. The majority of hosts and users acknowledge that the government must preserve their security, assurance, and protection. For that reason, the current laws and applications are in of immediate improvement.

The established standards of free speech and privacy require alignment with the aims of assuring that intelligence efforts and government law enforcement are understandable and very clearly defined. Even though ethical surveillance is likely, there must exist feasible and publicly accessible documents and culpability for those recommending, supporting, and performing the surveillance.

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Website Copyright Violations: How Will Web Hosts Respond?

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Copyright violations aren’t anything new under the digital sun, but measures taken by Russia will most certainly strike an unfamiliar chord across the world. Starting in May of 2015, any website in Russia found guilty of multiple copyright violations will be permanently blocked in Russia. In an unrelated measure to fight Internet piracy in Russia, intellectual property rights holders will have to be paid a fee by the country’s communications operators for universal licenses and unlimited utilization of Internet content. Even if you aren’t a web host in Russia, this decision is sure to cause a ripple effect across the globe. Educate and prepare yourself now so that you’ll be able to ride the waves of change with ease.

 Russian Reform

Russia’s new crackdown on copyrighted material is part of the country’s new bill aimed at anti-piracy. Once a website found to be in violation of the law has been blocked, there’s no way that it can be unblocked. So far, the biggest issue with the measure is from Internet freedom activists who believe that the bill is biased toward rights holders. To make matters worse, it doesn’t have to be confirmed that the site is in violation of copyright, merely being suspected is enough for the site to be permanently blocked. The bill includes everything from books and music to software, but does not include photographs.

There was an earlier bill that included the same measures, but it wasn’t very effective in preventing online piracy, and there are those who believe that the new bill will achieve just as much. New amendments to the bill will also require that the owners of websites include their real name, physical address and email address directly on their websites.

You may be wondering why Russia is going to such great lengths to prevent copyright violations. The reason is that the country is considered to be the absolute worst for having copyright offenders. Currently, there are roughly 70,000 Russian websites that have been blacklisted, but a majority of them are simply suffering from the fallout of poorly conceived blacklisting measures.

Paying Your Dues 

Russia’s anti-piracy fee will have to be paid by communication operators in order to obtain a universal license for the standard content (books, music, movies, etc), but not for compiled works or software. With the new fee, it’s estimated that royalties will range anywhere from three to five American dollars per subscriber every year, which totals to anywhere between approximately $ 200,000,000 and $ 600,000,000 each year.

While the anti-piracy fee will release users from all liability involved with piracy and possibly reduce the amount of work the state authorities and courts have to do, the fee isn’t without its disadvantages. One of the biggest is that the fee absolves rights holders from having to deal with piracy problems and instead places the burdens on communication operators. The biggest problem with this shift is that users may have to pay more for their Internet subscription. So now that you have a better idea of the copyright violation issues going on in Russia, what does all of this have to do with you as a web host operating outside of Russia?

The DMCA 

The Digital Medium Copyright Act (DMCA) was established as a way to safeguard online service providers like web hosts from facing liability for any information that is transmitted or posted by subscribers. This protection only applies if the service provider quickly disables or takes down the copyrighted material.

There are a few other stipulations that provide self harbor protection for web hosts and other online service providers, including:

  • The service provider must not financially benefit from or have knowledge of the copyrighted material
  • After the service provider has been made aware of the infringing activity, he must either remove or block access to the reported material
  • The service provider must create a copyright policy and make sure all subscribers and users are aware of the policy
  • There must also be an agent in place who is qualified to deal with any reported copyright violations

In the event that removed material is not found to be in violation of copyright infringement, the individual who posted or transmitted it on his website is legally entitled to file a counter-notice with the service provider. The service provider must then inform the individual who originally filed the complaint of the counter-notice. If 14 business days pass and the copyright owner does not inform the service provider that he has filed a court claim, then the website owner has the right to restore the materials.

Additional Info

 Just as it is in Russia, photographs aren’t considered under copyright violations. In most cases, the subject of a photograph is not legally allowed to initiate the DMCA takedown process. The only parties who are able to initiate the process are a legally authorized representative of the copyright owner and the copyright owner himself. Any kind of copyright in the photograph belongs solely to the individual who initially took the photograph, not the subject or subjects in the photograph. That being said, it is possible for the photograph’s subject to receive an assignment of copyright or permission to take action on the photographer’s behalf.

In order to truly be protected under the safe harbor provisions of the DMCA, web hosts need to make sure they inform users of copyright infringement policies. This can be done by including the policy or policies on the original contract the user signs or agrees to. You can also include the policies and specific terms of services on your hosting website. No matter how you decide to inform users of your copyright infringement policies, it is legally required to be “reasonably implemented” in order for you to be protected.

Since copyright law can be a bit confusing and all-encompassing at times, it’s important to remember what copyright does not protect, including:

  • Procedures
  • Ideas
  • Facts
  • Methods of operation
  • Systems
  • Processes
  • Principles
  • Discoveries
  • Concepts

It’s a good idea for web hosts to speak with a legal professional who specializes in copyright law in order to make sure they aren’t already in violation of copyright. It’s always better and less stressful to hope for the best while you prepare for the worst.

Top image ©GL Stock Images

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