Most folks don't read "terms and conditions" documents online before they sign or check the box. As David Ardia points out, that can be a big mistake when it comes to picking a web hosting company.
David asks Will Your ISP Stand Up for Your Free Speech Rights?. Too often, the answer is no.
David links to a post by Paul Alan Levy on Public Citizen's Consumer Law & Policy Blog about the repeated takedown of Ronald Riley's site.
The animating event behind the creation of the MBA was when back in 2004 The New York Times filed a take down notice against my old blog, The National Debate. In that case, I ended up having a long talk with the General Counsel at Verio, my hosting provider at the time who expressed sympathy for my predicament (he agreed The Times was wrong on the long law) but they took me down for three days anyway. In fairness to them, the DMCA does not give them wiggle room but I decided to make a switch to my current host, ZubrCom Communications. They've been great. There have many efforts to shut down the Media Bloggers Association site, primarily from complainants in cases where we are defending a blogger and ZubrCom has pushed back hard every time.
Shopping for a web host based on price alone is a big mistake.
