April 4, 2008 -- (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) -- Lawsuits and legal pressures were unmistakably the trend that kept popping up in this week's Web hosting news, but along with the legal matters were several interesting takes on data center building and marketing.
On Tuesday, Microsoft reported that it would use between 150 and 220 shipping containers filled with data center equipment to build the first stage of a 500,000 square foot Chicago data center. The plan, a departure in data center construction, is to base the entire first floor of the facility on containers, which will help to limit the cost of building out. The company says it has readied other facilities to be filled in the same way.
On Wednesday, Go Daddy announced that NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr. would debut the Go Daddy Chevrolet sponsored car this weekend at the Texas Motor Speedway. Earnhardt designed the car after becoming a spokesman for the company. Go Daddy made the deal in December, becoming the primary sponsor for the car in six races in 2008.
Both Microsoft and Google made announcements interesting enough to attract attention on their own, but most of this week's biggest stories fell under the umbrella of lawsuits and legal pressure.
Early in the week we reported that the parent company of the Fayetteville Observer had filed a libel lawsuit against Web host AIT and its CEO Clarence Briggs. The company says the defendants hurt the paper's reputation with accusations that it overstated its website viewership statistics in an effort to mislead advertisers. AIT filed a libel suit against the paper and one of its reporters in September, claiming that the paper published defamatory statements about AIT and its employees via websites aitsucks.com and aitsucks.net, though it dropped the suit in January.
Last week, consumer advocacy organization Public Citizen told a Texas court that a railway company's lawsuit against a Web hosting provider should be dismissed. Northern Santa Fe Railway filed suit against Network54 in an effort to identify two individuals who posted parody news stories on the company's forum. Public Citizen, which is co-representing the host, says the railway has no right to demand that the host reveal the identities of the individuals.
On Thursday, we reported that Microsoft and Symantec had agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by Symantec two years ago regarding the use of Veritas code in Microsoft products. Symantec sued Microsoft in May 2006, claiming the company had used technology Symantec had acquired in its purchase of Veritas in 2005. Microsoft had previously signed a licensing agreement with Veritas. The companies jointly reported on Thursday that they had amicably resolved the dispute.
And on Monday this week, video hosting site LiveLeak said it had removed controversial Koran-related documentary "Fitna" from its site, after receiving both complaints and threats. LiveLeak is known for hosting controversial and uncensored clips related to war and conflict, but removed this item due to security concerns. Typically the site has a strict stance on remaining unbiased. Since its removal, the video has spread virally, even appearing on more strictly-monitored sites, such as YouTube.
While an unusual amount of this week's news is likely to have an impact that lasts beyond this week, the most interesting to Web hosts may be the AIT lawsuit, as it relates directly to the company's campaign against "click fraud."
