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What is DMCA ignored hosting?
DMCA stands for Digital Millennium Copyright Act. This is a US copyright law that basically protects content from being copied or used without the express permission of the content creator.
Of course, there are more details to DMCA than that, but that’s basically the gist of it. DMCA ignored hosting is therefore, web hosting or hosting your website from a web hosting provider on their servers which do not acknowledge or ignore most DMCA takedown notices.
In this post, I’m going to go over why you may need DMCA ignored hosting, it’s benefits, drawbacks as well as where you can get it.
Why get DMCA ignored hosting?
Although for all intents and purposes the DMCA was a great act that was passed in the US. It protects content creators from plagiarists and others who wish to copy their content without compensating them. Who can be against that?
Unfortunately, just as plagiarists and other copyright and infringers take advantage of content creators, competitors of content creators as well as other nefarious individuals on the internet can try to take advantage of DMCA laws and hosting companies that are either too skittish or just simply don’t want to bother with fighting a DMCA takedown notice, to take down a rival’s content.
Basically, if you are looking to avoid frivolous DMCA takedown notices that are unwanted and unbiased, then getting DMCA ignored hosting is for you.
You see many competitors will just send out a DMCA takedown notice to your web hosting provider knowing that many of them will just shut down your entire website until you address it.
You either have to prove to your web hosting provider that the DMCA takedown notice is frivolous or they might not put your website back live on the internet.
Many DMCA takedown notices are, in fact, frivolous and can be proven so.
However, it can be either quite time consuming dealing with it or at the very least, you will experience unnecessary down time for your website which can cost you money and or Google rankings if that website is taken down too long off the internet.
What are the benefits of DMCA ignored hosting?
The benefits of DMCA ignored hosting are simply that you have an extra level of protection against frivolous DMCA take notices.
This means that DMCA ignored hosts will not automatically take a website off the internet if it receives a DMCA takedown notice.
This also means that even though your web host ignores DMCA takedown notices and does not simply take your website off the internet, most reputable web hosts including DMCA ignored web hosts, will actually notify you of the takedown notice.
You can of course address it, but in the meantime your website is still live on the internet. Since most DMCA ignored hosting is outside the jurisdiction of the United States, they don’t have to comply with the US DMCA takedown notices automatically out of fear of retaliation.
You see countries where DMCA ignored hosting are based, are only answerable to their own countries laws and not the US’s.
Although it must be said that if you are truly infringing on someone’s copyright or otherwise participating in illegal activity, the offended party can go through that country’s jurisdiction in order to get the content taken down.
But this can be quite a laborious process and not worth it to most, especially those who use frivolous DMCA claims simply to take you off the air.
This doesn’t mean also that reputable web hosting providers located in DMCA ignored hosting countries allow illegal or blatantly plagiarized content on their servers.
They also have reputations they must uphold.
What are the drawbacks of DMCA ignored hosting?
There are few drawbacks of DMCA ignored hosting. However, one of the drawbacks would be that your web hosting is based out of a country in which you are not a citizen of, nor have any legal rights in.
For example, if your DMCA ignored hosting provider decides to simply go out of business, good luck getting your money back.
Also communication can be an issue if it’s in a country where English is not fluently and widely spoken.
That’s why it’s important when choosing a DMCA ignored hosting provider that the country they are based in has a rule of law and a highly fluent English-speaking population.
Where can I get DMCA ignored hosting?
You can literally get DMCA ignored hosting in most countries outside of the United States, except for members of the “5 eyes” (the US, The UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.).
However, the most popular countries are of course located in Asia, Eastern Europe as well as Iceland, the Netherlands and Switzerland.
In my opinion the best country to get DMCA ignored hosting is Iceland. Check out Orangewebsite.com. Why?
- First, because Iceland has a highly fluent English speaking population.
- Second, Iceland does have a rule of law.
- Third, Iceland has strict freedom of speech legislation and privacy protection laws in place which is also outside the jurisdiction of the US, The UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the “5 eyes”.
- Fourth, Icelandic servers are totally run on geothermal power.
This might not seem like an issue, but by hosting your website in Iceland you can in some small way cut down on the carbon footprint that data servers cause.
Believe me, servers do consume a lot of energy. So it’s good to know that your website will be hosted in one of the most environmentally friendly countries in the world.
Can DMCA ignored hosting protect me from the authorities?
At the end of the day, if your aim is to publish or promote content that is considered illegal in most countries of the world, then DMCA ignored hosting will not protect you from the authorities.
Even if you are publishing highly copyrighted material such as Hollywood imagery or content from well-known publications, then these sources do have the means to contact the authorities even in DMCA ignored hosting countries.
DMCA ignored hosting, final thoughts.
If you publish what many consider unpolitically correct content or content that is controversial and you wish to have your website remain anonymous and also to protect yourself against those who would like to see your content taken off the internet and not allow you to practice your freedom of speech rights even in a country where free speech is supposedly protected, then getting DMCA ignored hosting is for you.
Finally, if you’ve had your website taken down over a frivolous DMCA takedown notice from one of your competitors, then you also might want to consider moving your website to a DMCA ignored web hosting provider, located in a country that does not succumb to such frivolous DMCA take down notices at the drop of the hat.
