Ecliptic Rift

You should always read your agreements before you sign up for them. Let’s talk about terms of service for hosting companies. Keep in mind that I write from the perspective of someone who’s a licensed private investigator and has years of hands-on “street experience” in network forensics, Internet investigations, acceptable use policy development and execution, and US federal, state, and local law enforcement liaison. I am not, however, a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. This is my thought process as I consider a ToS document. Factor that in however you like.

I wouldn’t ever sign a contract or any other document riddled with spelling, grammatical, and copyediting errors because that tells me they haven’t taken due care. That is, if they haven’t taken the time to make sure it’s readable, why should I take the time to read it? Attention to detail matters.

Further, if a contract specifies particular availability guarantees, then goes on to say that they make “no warranties of any kind” including for “any and all service interruptions,” then I have serious concerns about their business. Seriously, if you run a real business, get a lawyer to review this sort of thing.

And pardon me for sticking with my Fourth Amendment rights, but I don’t want to work with a provider that “may disclose any subscriber information to law enforcement agencies without further consent or notification to the subscriber upon lawful request from such agencies. We will cooperate fully with law enforcement agencies.” Given that this is my profession for many years, I can say with substantial authority that this sort of unswerving cooperation leads to bad things and abuses. “Lawful request” means many different things to many different people and it may not mean what you think it does.

Also, if somebody offers “unlimited” something, they should not go off and redefine “unlimited” to mean “limits we think are pretty high”. That’s dishonest at best and will almost certainly lead to problems later. (Ask those wireless companies and ISPs that have had lots of PR black eyes). If they offer tremendous amounts of resources above and beyond what their competitors offer, that’s great, but I don’t want to see anybody make the leap from puffery to outright deception. Because, yes, if you offer unlimited transfer amounts and I max out what you offer, that’s not a denial of service. That’s the logical extrapolation from what you said I could do.

Finally, ‘reserving the right to revise its policies at any time without notice’ sounds like what Darth Vader told Lando Calrissian: “I have altered the deal. Pray I do not alter it further.”

Now, all that said, what do I want in my hosting relationship?

I want a host that does not discriminate against my lawful content, including content related to my profession. I want a host that takes reasonable steps to secure and monitor their infrastructure but without treating me like I’m the enemy. I want a host that affirmatively stands up for me and doesn’t actually hold their customers directly responsible for their legal costs. I want a host that will treat me with respect when they want to make changes in our deal. I want a host that pays attention to what they’re doing and gives me every confidence that they will provide a well-designed, well-administered, professional service.

I’d like to see the hosts that specifically market to me and my fellow EVE players move in this direction. Because right now, a controversy has sprung up with Lonetrek Web Hosting (managed by an alliance mate of mine). I don’t want to bash anyone, particularly people whom I firmly believe want to do the right thing and just have some growing pains, as is the case here. I just want other players (and Anthony) to have the information available to make good, well-informed decisions, whatever those final decisions may be.

UPDATE: Anthony did a total re-write and, in my view, the new version of his terms represents a major improvement over the old ones. As I said, I knew he just wanted to do the right thing, and thus I didn’t want to present my opinion as an attack or bludgeoning. Props!

Related posts:

1. Someone Else’s Terms (part 5, conclusion)
2. Someone Else’s Terms (part 2)
3. Rudeness doesn't pay