Law & jurisdiction
Does the DMCA apply to offshore hosting?
The DMCA is United States copyright statute. Its notice-and-takedown procedure and safe harbour apply to service providers situated in the United States. A server in Panama, Moldova or Seychelles is governed by that country's copyright law instead — which in most cases requires a court order rather than a private notice.
This is often described as "DMCA ignored", which is misleading. The accurate statement is that the DMCA procedure has no application outside the US, so a notice sent to a non-US host is a letter rather than a legal instrument. It is not that the notice is defied; it is that it has no procedural effect.
Copyright itself is near-universal through the Berne Convention. Infringement remains unlawful in every jurisdiction we operate in. What differs is the enforcement mechanism: notice-and-takedown in the US, judicial process almost everywhere else.
- DMCA notices to non-US locations: no procedural effect, forwarded for information
- Valid court orders from a competent court: acted on
- US locations (New York, Ashburn, Miami, Dallas, Chicago, Los Angeles and others): DMCA applies fully
- Content that is illegal in the host jurisdiction: removed regardless of who complains
See also: DMCA
7 answers in Law & jurisdiction
- Is offshore hosting legal? Yes. Renting a server in another country is an ordinary commercial transaction, and no jurisdiction we operate in prohibits it. Offshore hosting chang…
- What happens if you receive a subpoena or court order? We assess whether it is valid legal process from a court with jurisdiction over OnionVPS. If it is, we comply with exactly what is ordered and nothing…
- What is an MLAT and why does it matter for hosting? A mutual legal assistance treaty is the formal channel through which one country asks another to gather evidence on its behalf. It matters because a f…
- What content is not allowed on your servers? Child sexual abuse material, which we report to the appropriate authority. Malware command-and-control, ransomware infrastructure and exploit kits. Ph…
- How do you handle abuse complaints? Complaints are triaged by evidence, not by volume. Automated copyright notices to non-US locations are forwarded to you for information and no action …
- Will my server be suspended if someone complains about it? Not for a single unverified complaint. Suspension is reserved for active, ongoing harm: an instance participating in an attack, distributing malware, …