The panel of the "Public Policy and the Hosting Industry" session
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — One of the Monday morning sessions at HostingCon was the “Public Policy and the Hosting Industry” panel, moderated and organized by Christian Dawson, COO of ServInt, who gathered some key policy advocates to discuss some legislation he (and they) consider disturbing in relation to the hosting business.
The panel included David McClure, of the US Internet Industry Association, Suzy Fulton, general counsel for SoftLayer and Abigail Phillps of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Dawson asked the panelists, in introducing themselves, to discuss some of what they considered the biggest threat to the hosting business.
The US IIA, says McClure has discovered that Washington does not operate the way you think, and an industry like the Internet industry (or more specifically, the Hosting industry) needs to work together in order to get by. He says an industry needs three things to survive: a conference; a magazine and an industry organization. Hosting, he says, has one (obviously referring to WHIR magazine. Somebody should tell him about HostingCon).
Fulton says SoftLayer has been active in attempting to have input into state privacy and taxation laws, particularly when state tax or privacy legislation affects customers in different states from their hosting provider.
Phillips says law enforcement’s involvement in seizures and similarly invasive tactics in relation to copyright infringing content, for instance, is, if not the greatest threat facing the hosting industry, a disturbing trend.
In the interest of having a voice in government, McClure pointed out that one of the reasons government and law enforcement seems to feel new laws are needed to protect copyright and children online, for instance, is that they don’t necessarily appreciate that hosting providers are in this to run business, and that illegal or objectionable content is bad for business.
The real important point here is the fact that government and law makers don’t necessarily seek to have an adversarial relationship with the hosting business. It really just doesn’t always have access to the hosting business’s point of view.
Phillips made the interesting point that much of the early legislation around the Internet (like the Communications Decency Act) happened to foster the Internet’s growth, whereas much of the newer legislation is more likely to impede its growth.
In discussing the potentially destructive potential for government mandated data retention, MClure says his organization has a paper called “Why Data Retention Doesn’t Help Law Enforcement.” It’s linked directly on this page here.
Asked by Dawson where hosts can find out what bills might impact them, Phillips suggested reading the EFF’s blog. You can get to that from here.
McClure offered some closing recommendations (recommending, even, that they be written down).
Make your customers use their own domain names, which can prevent domain-based shut down.
Don’t register the domains for your customers. If something happens to you, they could lose them.
Strengthen your terms of service agreement, and be strict about enforcing them.
Unite. There is strength in numbers.
Dawson asks that you come to the “save hosting” working group in room 30A at noon. Also: facebook.com/savehosting or twitter.com/savehosting.
About Liam Eagle
Liam Eagle has worked as a contributor to the Web Host Industry Review since its inception in 2000, and as editor since 2003. He has been editor of the WHIR's print magazine since its launch. His daily involvement in the gathering and reporting of Web hosting news and his regular interaction with Web hosting leaders gives him an uncommonly broad appreciation of the issues and tends facing the business. Through his WHIR blog, Liam spots Web hosting trends and offers opinions on the industry-wide impacts of major developments and the motivation behind big announcements. Follow him on Twitter @liameagle
No related posts.
