Website hosting agreement
Before jumping into bed with a website host, it’s worth thinking through what you expect of them – and making sure you agree these requirements in writing. Any agreement should, at the very least cover:
- Amount of storage space, bandwidth and provision for scaling up.
- The availability of the system (24/7?) and downtime for maintenance.
- Security for data processing.
- A confidentiality clause.
- The procedure to be adopted if an allegation is made that there is defamatory (or other unacceptable) content on the site. (It appears it will be a defence to such claims to have a system in place and move quickly to remove the offending material).
- Security, passwords and procedures for uploading material.
- An indemnity for claims against you if their provision or lack of it causes claims against you (e.g. downtime causes an advertiser to request money back).
- Assistance on transfer of materials/info/software, codes etc on termination.
- An indemnity from them in case they use software, which is not licensed to them.
If you have an arrangement with a website host but it doesn’t cover these 9 key areas or, worse still, you don’t have an agreement, your business could lose customers, revenue and worse – face legal proceedings for anything from breaches of the Data Protection Act to breaking obscenity laws.
Contact Cousins Business Law for advice on this topic.
Article added before March 2008 © Cousins Business Law
This article is not intended to constitute legal advice, nor is it intended to be a complete and authoritative statement of the law, and what we say might be out of date by the time you read it. You should always seek legal advice to confirm whether or how any information in this article applies to your particular situation. We offer a free telephone consultation to discuss your particular circumstances.
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