Hosting Contract

A hosting contract is a legal document that establishes the rights, obligations, and extent of services that govern the relationship between a Web Site Host and a Client. The nature of web site hosting opens individuals and businesses to a large sphere of accountability with resultant potential liabilities. IT professionals should use a hosting contract as a standard course of business whenever they provide web site hosting services to a client.

A web site host provides third-party clients-individuals, organizations, and other users-with online systems for storing web accessible content. This content can include text, images, sound files, and video files. Any time intellectual property is made available for public access, copyright and trademark laws must be observed. While the web site host may comply with these laws scrupulously, they may not have the resources to monitor the conduct of their clients. However, they may still be liable for "contributory infringement" - where a party may be found culpable of copyright and trademark infringement if they cause or contribute to the infringing conduct of another - or "vicariously liability" - where a party may be liable for the infringing actions of another if they are able to control the infringer's acts and receive financial benefit from the infringement. Therefore, it is essential that a web site host have a hosting contract with explicit acceptable use clauses to protect them in the event a client violates copyright and trademark laws.

Additionally, a hosting contract protects web site hosts from client-initiated complaints by defining such things as scope of services, terms of service, and support and customer service responsibilities. A hosting contract should also include such agreement provisions as Price and Payment, Term and Termination, and Warranty and Disclaimer.

The ContractEdge Web Site Hosting Agreement is a hosting contract that protects web site hosts from liabilities associated with the hosting of third-party web sites on their servers. This document includes three templates that are vital for protecting and defining hosting contract terms and conditions: a Statement of Work Template, a Service Level Agreement Template, and Web Hosting Acceptable Use Template.

Additional Topics
Consulting Contract
License Agreement
Web Design Contracts
Legal Contract
Independent Contractor Agreement