A Single Southern Guy in America

May 17, 2004

Free Market Censorship of the Berg Video

This is a topic that is about three days overdue and was originally postponed by the issues my blog had due to a flawed move from one server to another. As we have already discussed, the Berg video caused a traffic surge unlike anything we have seen in the blogosphere. Those individuals who hosted the video were hit harder than anyone, sucking up bandwidth and slowing servers down. Compounding the problem for many of the larger bloggers is that many of them use Hosting Matters as their hosting service. As a number of them hosted the video, not to mention the heightened traffic above and beyond their normally large audience, the blogosphere slowed down considerably with the Berg event.

However, one story that has not had a great deal of discussion is the case of my Blog-brother Dax Montana. Early on, he made the available from his blog. Like so many others, his bandwidth was sucked dry rather quickly. As any good blogger might do when funds allow, he purchased additional bandwidth from his host, ICDSoft.com.

Now is where the story gets interesting. Within moments of accepting his payment for additional bandwidth, ICDSoft not only shut his site down, but terminated his account with no notice. I noted that Dax seemed to be missing in action, but I had no idea it was this serious. Dax emailed me later to tell me the story. With his permission, I am presenting the emails between ICDSoft and him regarding the issue below.

My first reaction is that ICDSoft was treading somewhere around the First Amendment, but upon further reflection, I'm not so sure considering their stated policies and that they are a private enterprise. Still, I know Dax and I are interested in other folks take on the situation; particularly in the light that they shut him down only moments after he purchased additional bandwidth.

Particularly interesting to me were the poor grammar and the demand to know why he uploaded the video in its original, unedited form~~

We do not provide services to sites that tolerate violence. We
really sorry to shutdown your site, however we do not have other option.

Why did you upload the beheading movie uncensored on your website making it
accessible to public? We are not able to find out any reasonable explanation
for your action.

The host and/or author of that initial email clearly has formed their own opinion about the video and uses that opinion to justify their action.

The letters are below. I blog, you decide.

ICDSoft's email notice of account termination

We should inform you that we had to disable your hosting account for
daxmontana.net. We found out that you had uploaded a movie containing scenes
of extreme violence and cruelty (the movie showed the beheading of an
American civilian by Iraqi terrorists), which breaks our policy for suitable
web content. We do not provide services to sites that tolerate violence. We
really sorry to shutdown your site, however we do not have other option.

Why did you upload the beheading movie uncensored on your website making it
accessible to public? We are not able to find out any reasonable explanation
for your action.
We do not wish the name of our company to be associated as one of the
distributors of this gruesome video.

Best Regards,
Abuse Team
ICDSoft.com

Dax's reply

Dear ICDSoft,

I�m writing in response to your disabling of my web site Daxmontana.net. I�m
hoping you will find a soft spot in your hearts and reconsider your
decision. I am now fully aware that I violated the terms of our
relationship.

Although I freely admit to violating your policies toward violence, I in no
way intended to do so. Daxmontana.net is the domain name for my Web log. I
usually don�t post political entries to my site, much less videos. I got
caught up in the moment and now regret that hasty Blog entry. Furthermore, I
do not promote violence. I had no idea that the post would attract so much
attention to my web page. Please examine the page statistics prior to that
Blog entry. If given the opportunity to rectify this situation, I will
immediately remove the offensive video from your server, and be more aware
of our relationship, as well as the terms of service.

Again, I am asking you reconsider your decision. ICDSoft has been a
wonderful web host for my hobbyist needs. I would very much like to continue
our relationship.

Thank you,

Dax

ICDSoft's reply reinstating his account

We decided to reinstate your hosting account. We have removed the offensive
video from your site and our server.
We believe that you will not violate again our terms of use. In this sense,
we also notice that you have uploaded several MP3 files on your site.
Please, note that you can store copyright protected files on our server only
if you are the copyright holder or owner. Please, remove these mp3s that you
are not authorized to distribute through the internet. We will not allow the
file sharing actions that may violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Your cooperation will be appreciated.

Best Regards,
K. Vassilev
Abuse Coordinator
ICDSoft.com

Your thoughts?

Posted by Adam H at May 17, 2004 05:40 PM ~ Link Cosmos | Trackbacks (1)
Walloworld linked with We Don't Need No Stinkin' Video

Comments

Change hosting companies, fast.

Posted by: Kevin at May 17, 2004 06:10 PM

..bunch of asdf;kjaklsdfkjsd;kkjfas... move hosts....

Posted by: Eric at May 17, 2004 06:17 PM

CHANGE HOSTS!

Posted by: h at May 18, 2004 03:55 PM

Read your own Hosts policy's. Changing Hosts may feel good, but I am willing to bet that the Hosts rules and regulations that they operate under are pretty standard. It becomes a matter of inforcement, and if they get on the bad side of the FCC, guess what happens.

Posted by: James Old Guy at May 19, 2004 10:50 AM

Yes, change hosts now. You need to explain to them why you felt the need to feature the video? They're completely clueless. Now that you're on their radar this probably won't be the last time that they feel the need to "educate" you about their TOS.

Frankly, it's also pretty silly for a hosting company to fear being "associated" with such a thing. No one actually cares who hosts what, and the laws on the books don't hold them responsible for hosted content. (Incindentally, unless someone else can tell me different, the FCC has no role in defining what kind of content an ISP can host.)

Posted by: Bryan C at May 19, 2004 08:24 PM