“O’er the land of the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

Well, mostly free.

There are a few new bills that everyone is talking about, SOPA and and PIPA (A.K.A. PROTECT-IP). These two bills have some interesting concepts that, summarized, mean “protecting” US corporate interests by removing US citizens’ access to a free and open Internet.

Now, I’ve read these bills and they have nice tag lines like: “To Promote prosperity, creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation by combating the theft of U.S. Property, and for other purposes.” or “To prevent online threats to economic creativity and theft of intellectual property, and for other purposes.” These things sound great! But, never judge a bill by its cover.

These bills are simply rehashes of an existing law, the DMCA, but with a far more sinister side. The big difference is that these bills state the action to be taken enforces a definitive closure of an entire domain when a claim of infringement takes place. What does this mean? Let’s take youtube.com as an example: If someone can make the argument that youtube.com is hosting too many infringing videos, then ALL of youtube.com could be taken offline with the way this law is written. For smaller sites, you’re just an easier target for the people in charge of deciding if a site is a “threat to US property” or not.

Freeze! Did you catch that? “People in charge.” Yes, SOPA details how the US government will need to create a “Intellectual Property Enforcement” agency that finds sites are a “threat to US property” and sends out the notice requiring a removal of the domain as a whole. What designates a threat goes far beyond just copyright, it includes sites which pose a risk to national security “and other purposes” (as is stated in the bills’ earlier description). Yes, that’s right, a segment of the US government will be dedicated to censorship of the Internet.

Our perspective as a hosting provider that handles a good number of DMCA notifications is that this law, as it exists today, (while it has it’s flaws) works perfectly fine. The DMCA only requires the infringing works to be removed, and for repeat or egregious offenders we’re always permitted to tell these customers to “GTFO”.

Recently, DHS-ICE has also done a fantastic job in shutting down counterfeit goods rings and actually puts the people behind the scheme in jail, not just taking down a domain name. So why is there a need for a new law?

Going further on how this really hits home for DreamHost though, is the requirements expected of hosting providers and registrars (of which we are both) to manage the sort of Internet blacklist this law will create. Failure to comply with this would result in web hosts like DreamHost being treated as if we are assisting in a crime, even if our only involvement was acting unknowingly by registering a domain name for a customer. Keep in mind, we wouldn’t even get a say in the matter if we receive a notice to remove a domain. We would be required by law to remove the entire domain immediately and notify you, the customer, after the domain has been taken offline. This could include disabling things like email, jabber, or other supportive services because the law states that domain services must be removed, not just the site, and not just the alleged infringing works!

Everyone should be aware of these bills before they come to law, as they will dramatically change how the Internet operates within the US. There is a strong movement online to promote awareness of these bills and many sites are offering help on what you can do to address it. So please check out some of these sites, write your representative, or just let your friends know more before this becomes law and before you find that the Internet as you knew it is no longer free.

To find more about these bills yourself, and what actions you can take, please check the following sites:

http://americancensorship.org/
http://savehosting.org/
https://www.eff.org/

Because you asked for it…

We’re proud to announce today that DreamHost is the official web and app hosting partner of MuckerLab!

MuckerLab is a self-styled “Start-Up Accelerator” which is really just a fancy way of saying “Tech Incubator”. The MuckerLab program is an intensive three month program aimed at helping web entrepreneurs realize their dreams through a comprehensive support system.

5 to 10 fortunate startups are accepted into the program during which they’re given extensive mentoring, office space, and financial support to help get their ideas off the ground and into the web browsers of men and women around the world.

MuckerLab is unique in that they’ve chosen to focus their efforts on empowering start-ups in the Los Angeles and greater Southern California area. As a one-time Los Angeles-based startup ourselves (DreamHost started waaay back in 1997) we know that tech talent is abundant in Southern California throughout Los Angeles County, Orange County, and beyond.

Silicon Valley may get all the press, but the talent pool in Los Angeles is, in many respects, an untapped resource. We absolutely support the vision of MuckerLab and are proud to be associated with any effort that draws attention to the talent and vision of the creative web entrepreneurs in and around Southern California.

Check out our press release for more info!

Tell me about your organization: 
Katie: BackYard Nature Center was founded in 2007 by Daniel Kielson. Our main purpose is to connect children and adults, such as boy scouts, garden clubs, rotary clubs, and schools, with nature sites in the New Trier Township, such as the Forest Preserve District of Cook County and various village park districts, by means of service and educational activities. We have 6 hard-working board members, all volunteers, and 1 paid part-time staff member. The Forest Preserve District of Cook County has been a wonderful partner, enabling BYNC to direct various stewardship groups to the Skokie Lagoons Preserve.

Recently, BYNC assisted a Boy Scout earn his Eagle Scout status by developing and supervising a summer leadership program that advanced the habitat of the 13-acre Sedge Meadow. BYNC also just completed a Science Curricula in Nature Program with New Trier High School, whereby teachers and ecologists developed biology laboratory experiences that took place in the adjacent forest preserves. Over 600 students participated in the first year of the program.

What Kind of Web Traffic Does BYNC see?
Katie: We usually have around 500 Unique Visitors per month. It’s funny, we actually had a spike in August when we were nominated for DHSOTM, which was really exciting! It was a unique moment on Google Analytics. I went on and wondered what this spike was all about, and then I noticed we were voted DreamHost Site Of The Month.

Where did you come up with the Design of the Site?
Katie: We had the agency, Atlas Software Technologies design it.  I really like the design of the site, it is clean and simple.

Why did you choose DreamHost?
Katie: We needed to host the site somewhere. I am an information tech person by trade, so I added some hosting software to my private server and hosted the site out of my apartment for a while. The problem was, my private server wasn’t fast enough. The site was just too slow, especially with large documents publicly available on the site. I was glad when a friend recommended DreamHost to me since you do free domain hosting for Non-Profit Organizations.  In January, I moved over to DreamHost and was so glad I did, because your customer service is excellent and always reliable.

People are going to think I just added DreamHost has excellent customer service. Can you tell me a time that DH customer service was helpful?
Katie: Sure! Our site was victim to a hacker attack this past summer. They used SQL injection to hack into the site and steal our database passwords. I emailed DH at 3am and within 1 hour I got instructions on what files to check, how to make the site more secure and what to look for in the future.

What Pages Get the Most Traffic?
Katie: Either the Home Page or Outdoor Play. Outdoor play gets a lot of hits because it contains great information on outdoor family-friendly activities in the area.

How Do You Promote Your Site?
Katie: We send out a semi-annual newsletter and various e-blasts. Also, we are in constant contact with teachers, ecologists, and various youth organizations.

What suggestions do you have to make DreamHost better?
Katie: It would be great if you could merge all log-in IDs and passwords into 1 super password. Right now, I think I have a different password for the panel, SSH & FTP, site stats, etc.

That’s a great idea! We’re always looking for ways to make things easier.

Any Last Words?
Katie: Do you have any promotions coming up? I really liked the wooden back panel “JackBacks” you gave away for the iPhone!

Last Saturday night we held our annual Halloween party at The Edison in Downtown Los Angeles. We loved it so much in 2010 that we decided to do it there again!

And, for the second year in a row, it was glorious!

The very talented Debra Gerson helped us capture the evening in photos and we’ve thrown them up on Flickr. Some of the costumes this year were unreal.

We’re hoping to see you there next year!

All you have to do is get hired. We’ll take it from there!