Legal Question in Technology Law in Arizona

Re: Web content and liablities

You will need to establish guidelines in your TOU contract online. I have advised numerous web-based businesses in the last 10 years. You may also have the benefit of specific statutory protections which I can assist you in applying.

Re: Web content and liablities

In addition to the last attorney's post, you'll need to comply with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in order to shield yourself from liability for posted material that infringes the copyrights of third parties. There is a very specific process you'll need to follow to comply with the DMCA.

If you are based in the U.S., having an offshore server typically does not protect you with respect to these types of matters.

There are also some crucial operational considerations you'd need to follow with how you monitor comments on your site if you want to protect yourself from defamatory or other tortious comments.

We represent website owners in these matters on a regular basis, so feel free to contact us for more information.

Re: Web content and liablities

If you're merely hosting the site and not operating it, then you don't have any liability under these facts. You do have to follow specific procedures for copyright and trade/service mark infringement claims and you can cause yourself to have liability if you are not well informed. For several years how, I've been general counsel for several hosting companies like directNIC.com, Parked.com, DomainContender.com, Zipa.com as well as operators of sites like the one you describe.