Posted by Paul Wegemann on December 29, 2011 at 9:24 PM
I'm looking for a web hosting company and I found several that seemed decent, until I read their terms of service. Each of them has some statement like the one shown below. In each case I contacted the hosting company and received incredibly ignorant or just plain stupid responses such as "Don't worry about it", or "That's not really what we mean". In each case I asked to have the terms modified and was refused.
My question to the group is, has anyone found a good hosting company, with reasonable prices, that doesn't want to lay claim to your content?
Here's a sample from one of the site's TOS. I changed the company name in this case.
" x.com claims no ownership interest in the content of Subscriber's web site(s). By submitting content and data to x.com, Subscriber grants to x.com, its successors and assigns, the worldwide, royalty-free, and nonexclusive license under Subscriber's copyrights and other rights, if any, in all material and content displayed in Subscriber's web site to use, distribute, display, reproduce, and create derivative works from such material in any and all media, in order to maintain such content on x.com's servers during the term of these Terms. Subscriber also authorizes the downloading and printing of such material, or any portion thereof, by end-users for their personal use."
Posted by Jack Garrett on December 30, 2011 at 12:21 AM
I use SmugMug pro and I don't think my TOS says anything like that. I would never sign on to a web host that had those conditions.
Posted by Don Grall on December 30, 2011 at 1:14 PM
That appears to be outright intellectual property theft! Doesn't sound like those .com's have any experience in hosting art related websites.
Posted by Bob Falcone on December 30, 2011 at 10:28 PM
My web hosting company doesn't have anything like that.
Posted by Tom Stermitz on December 31, 2011 at 1:17 AM
You didn't say whether it was "just" a web host, or a more complete environment like smugmug, facebook, blogger, etc. A traditional, plain-jane web-hosting company like bluehost.com or the like doesn't have a clause like that. Your web designer makes a site and uploads it to be hosted; nothing else. I'm very happy with bluehost, which has great service (hosting as well as tech support) at a very reasonable cost. Spend the money on a good graphic designer and web guru, not on the hosting itself.
Facebook does have a clause like that, so you normally don't want to put your large or good photos up there.
Posted by Rod Chandler on December 31, 2011 at 11:56 AM
Paul, My website is through Zenfolio. Bob Karcz and I both use them and we have been extremely happy. Take a look at: www.rodchandlerphotography.com. It costs $100 per year and I have total control. Customers can, and have, ordered prints from the website. The prints are made and shipped by MPIX. I have been delighted with the service.
Posted by Don George on December 31, 2011 at 5:55 PM
I'll second Zenfolio. Built my website on their free trial offer in a couple of days. Been with them for a couple of years with no problems.
Posted by Erik Stensland on December 31, 2011 at 6:16 PM
I just had a look at my TOS and all looks good. I'm using HostGator and am very happy with their service. Here's their TOS http://www.hostgator.com/tos/tos.php
Posted by Paul Wegemann on December 31, 2011 at 6:28 PM
Thanks for the input, folks.
Tom, the TOS I posted was from Bluehost. Unfortunately, I found a number of low cost hosting companies with the same, or similar wording in their terms.
Posted by Bob Falcone on January 1, 2012 at 6:32 PM
I've used oneworldhosting.com for my website for years, with no problems. Just to make sure they didn't change something when I wasn't paying attention, I just re-read their TOS and it still has nothing like the language posted by Bluehost. In fact, except for violating applicable laws, (or using their servers for spam, hacking, and other malfeasance) it maintains a "hands-off" approach to sites hosted on their servers...which is just the way it should be.
Discussion
9 repliesMy question to the group is, has anyone found a good hosting company, with reasonable prices, that doesn't want to lay claim to your content?
Here's a sample from one of the site's TOS. I changed the company name in this case.
" x.com claims no ownership interest in the content of Subscriber's web site(s). By submitting content and data to x.com, Subscriber grants to x.com, its successors and assigns, the worldwide, royalty-free, and nonexclusive license under Subscriber's copyrights and other rights, if any, in all material and content displayed in Subscriber's web site to use, distribute, display, reproduce, and create derivative works from such material in any and all media, in order to maintain such content on x.com's servers during the term of these Terms. Subscriber also authorizes the downloading and printing of such material, or any portion thereof, by end-users for their personal use."
Facebook does have a clause like that, so you normally don't want to put your large or good photos up there.
Tom, the TOS I posted was from Bluehost. Unfortunately, I found a number of low cost hosting companies with the same, or similar wording in their terms.