Why America isn’t the bad guy on the Internet

The grass isn't always greener on the other side.

If you use the internet for leisure, do business on the internet for profit, or count on the internet to spread your message, you are at a disadvantage if you are not doing so in America.

There, I said it.

That wasn’t meant as a slight to our friends and colleagues abroad. I don’t mean this as an attack on any one country or continent. Rather, I’m simply challenging the assertion that the United States is somehow the bad guy when it comes to freedom of speech on the web. I read countless stories that argue that sites that are critical of the government, large corporations, industries, political figures, etc., should host offshore in Canada or Europe because their sites are simply unsafe in the U.S.

This is little more than classic FUD.

Among bloggers, particularly in the tech world, the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) is loathed for its supposed coziness with the recording industry and the MPAA, among other content organizations. As a consumer, and as a geek, I personally share a lot of the same concerns and frustrations other users do when it comes to the principles of fair use. Believe me when I say I find DRM as annoying and intrusive as everybody else does. I also can see plainly that the “anti-circumvention” aspects of the DMCA are genuinely bad for consumers.

But the bigger picture here is that significant portions of this law, particularly Article II as it pertains to our industry, are actually well written. The DMCA isn’t perfect, it does a lot of annoying things but it also does a lot to protect the rights of ISP’s, online services, publishers, and users alike.

More after the jump.

“American Sites Are Unsafe and Unfree”

Let’s inject a little bit of reality here. European countries in particular have much, much, stronger search and seizure laws than the U.S. Moving a blog to Europe that criticizes public figures, individuals, or governments could be deadly to your business (and depending on the country, I mean that literally). Defamation and libel laws in many European countries are downright absurd, the example of Simon Singh in the UK illustrates this perfectly. Singh, a BAFTA winner and reporter for the Guardian, was sued for libel by the British Chiropractic Association after writing an article critical of the technique. The case has put the ability for anyone to publicly criticize alternative medicine in the UK in serious jeopardy and could have cascading effects towards whistleblowers for years to come.

Many bloggers don’t seem to understand that the DMCA works both ways.  Yes, getting a nasty DMCA complaint is annoying and sometimes scary, but it’s still relatively rare. What happens when another blogger steals your content?
In countries without the DMCA, content owners either have to count on their host to review their claim and contrast it with the infringing blog, or, and this is more likely, do nothing.  Then the blogger in question has to sue, which is costly and probably out of the picture for most independent bloggers.

In the U.S. they have an immediate remedy.

What about our friends up north? It’s not uncommon to see hosts in Canada advertise that they are PATRIOT Act-free. I don’t want to get into the politics of that particular law (people can find me on Facebook if they really want to know what I think personally), but many times those claims are disingenuous.

The reason that Canadian hosts can advertise that they are PATRIOT Act-free is because the act may violate provisions of Canadian privacy law. That’s all well and good, but you’d be a fool to think that if you host in Canada and a U.S. law enforcement agency wants access to your data that they’re not going to use bilateral subpoena and/or warrant enforcement treaties to get that information. You’d also have to assume a lot of good faith on the part of Canadian law enforcement officials to think that they’d take the time to review a U.S. based subpoena or warrant and determine whether it violates Canadian privacy laws.

In reality, what will probably happen is law enforcement will forward it on to the host, who will likely simply honor it. How many hosts out there have the resources to actually review a subpoena or the money to send it to their lawyers to review?

That’s something to think about when your message is depending on a $7 shared hosting provider’s willingness to defend your rights.

The Netherlands, Russia, and “Bullet-Proof” Hosting

What about the Netherlands? That bastion of defiant internet geekdom, symbolized by the ever-hilarious scalawags at the now-defunct Pirate Bay?

Unfortunately, there are many providers and publishers in the Netherlands and Russia that are famous for skirting copyright laws. Garnering a reputation as the dark corner of the internet isn’t something that sells particularly well to legitimate businesses, so the complete lack of security and ethics in an alarming number of these companies should be a major concern to potential customers. Authorities there have clamped down viciously on illegal content publishers all over Europe, most famously seizing the servers of the Pirate Bay and eventually shutting them down entirely.

The darker regions of the hosting industry, known as “bullet-proof” hosting providers, will simply ignore takedowns, warrants, and subpeonas altogether. On some level the sheer gaul of these companies is admirable, but they don’t have the same ethical underpinnings of a reputable law-abiding host. Customers should realize that there are likely warez, malware, spambots, child pornography, and phishing scams living right along side you on these so-called “bullet-proof” networks.

If you need a provider without the ethical fortitude necessary to police their network, then by all means go ahead. Most of us, however, want to make a legitimate living on the web and know that the first step to that is choosing the right partner.

Of course, not all hosts are like this, the vast majority of European hosts are terrific, reputable folks to deal with. There are also “bullet-proof” hosts here in the states as well, though they tend to have a much shorter shelf life then they do in the EU. But from a legal perspective, you are simply safer being hosted in the U.S. with a reputable host under U.S. law.

Why Hosting in the U.S. is A Good Idea, and Why It’s Even Better with ServInt

Our COO, Christian Dawson, characterizes our philosophy this way.

“We take a libertarian approach to what we host. As long as it is not illegal under U.S. law, and falls within our AUP, we will host it.”

That’s pretty cut and dry, and that idea is backed up by a fervent belief on the part of every individual in this company that what we do is contributing to the betterment of society, both on and away from the keyboard. To us, DMCA take down notices are just that, notices. Unless the content is blatantly illegal or against our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP), we will inform our customer in good faith and, if necessary defend them and our company.

We have a legal team that is prepared to protect the rights of our customers as it pertains to their hosting and we take that responsibility seriously and with pride.

That’s what being a good host is all about, and that’s why we’re still here. So RELAX. Your Business, your server, and your rights are up and running with ServInt.

Special thanks to Christian Dawson and our good friend David Snead for the legal and policy insights included in this post.

Photo by [ henning ]