Mixed messages from Bluehost?

[beatboyj]

I love Bluehost... been here for a few years.

This is my only "complaint" (if you can even call it that) :)

I wanted to set up a file sharing site (torrent site) and read here that it is not allowed.

However, yesterday, to be sure that if I did I wouldn't be violating any Bluehost TOS I called and specifically asked "Does Bluehost allow Torrent sites as the files are not hosted on your servers?"

The rep plainaly and clearly said "Yes, this is allowed; there's no problem with this."

So, I'm confused.

Did Bluehost change their policy regarding torrent sites or did the Rep make a mistake?

[MrDelish]

First of all, where did you read that torrents aren't allowed? (I'm not trying to contradict you, I'm just curious; it makes a big difference if they state it in an official article versus someone stating that they don't in a forum or blog). It's possible that BlueHost has a policy against illegal torrents, so if you're distributing copyrighted material without permission then that is a clear violation of their terms. That's really just a guess - I would give them another call, explain the discrepancy, and find out what the authoritative answer is. They either allow legal torrents or they don't, really.

[felgall]

There would be two aspects of this that should provide the obvious answer.

1. BlueHost do not allow hosting of any illegal files. So that would rule out any torrents where there is even the slightest doubt as to their being in the public domain.

2. BlueHost specifically provide web hosting and specifically do not allow the accounts to be used for any other purpose. Since torrents are not web pages and do not require someone to go via a web page to access them the files would not be allowed on the server on that basis.

The other thing is that it would be impossible to install the required software on the server to get torrents working from your web hosting account and so it isn't going to work even if you did manage to come up with a situation that avoids the two restrictions.

You need to be able to run a torrent server to be able to host torrents. They can't be hosted on a web server as that is something totally different.

[beatboyj]

Thanks guys for the words of encouragement and advice :)

I have now successfully set up my Torrent Tracker Site and will be hosting only files which are legal :)

[Evil_Dictator]

Last I heard, torrent trackers were frowned upon because they're not conducive to a shared environment. Takes too much juice to run.

[beatboyj]

Last I heard, torrent trackers were frowned upon because they're not conducive to a shared environment. Takes too much juice to run.

My site is written in PHP and the torrent files themselves range from 1Kb to 500+ KB so not very resource intensive by any stretch of the imagination :)

[DennisDee]

Ok thats normal for not supporting illegal files on torrents. But let me give my example... One of my websites are for music production teaching/learning, so I would like to enable to producers, that they can share their production/remixes over torrents. Is this allowed?


Greetings,
Denis

[redsox9]

Again, you need to check with BH on this. It probably depends on the expected volume of traffic.