I have a proxy website which is starting to get very popular. However, I am afraid of legal issues. What if a user does illegal activity and their ip gets logged and traced back to my website. How liable am I for this type of activity and what would protect me? I live in the USA.
Hi, A good terms of service and help shield you from liability. Users will most likely not be bound to a terms of service unless they check a box indicated that they agree to be bound by it before using your service. You can keep a log of who does what in case you ever run into legal issues but this kind of defeats the point of a proxy server. The Digital Millenium Copyright Act may apply. It protects some service providers from the actions of their users. The best way to know what you should do and what legal issues you might be facing is to ask an attorney. The law can be vague and specific all at the same time, which makes it a very confusing subject. It is not all just documented in some books as presidents are set by past cases neither one of us may know exist. If I ran a proxy site I would get a good terms of service written, make users check the box before using the service then ask an attorney if that is over kill or under kill. Obviously you want to make the user experience as best as possible while shielding yourself. Let me know if you have any more questions. Good luck with the site! -- Nathan Enns