x10Hosting's stance on e-libary (no copyright violation)

[dino.books84]

First of all, thank you for the service you are providing. Not many hosting providers can claim to do all that you guys are giving for free.

I would like to host an online library (mostly with manuals for applications running on Mainframes). All these manuals are available from the respective application developer website (for e.g., IBM or Computer Associates), however they are not indexed well and it often takes an advanced user to Google it with the right search terms and advanced search options.

I know filehosting is a violation of the TOS, but it is a little blurry to me on whether a online library is like a filehost (since most of the data will be files rather than pages).

Pls. advise. Thanks!

[stpvoice]

Hello,

The file hosting rule is that all files on the account have to be directly linked to your website, so I don't think having a library of manuals would be allowed. Also, you'd likely need to check with the manufacturers if it is okay for you to redistribute their manuals, and I can't really see them agreeing.

Thanks.

[dino.books84]

Thx for the quick reply! My query is resolved.

[Livewire]

I can add one suggestion to this actually which makes it much more possible. There's rules saying it'd go against FILE hosting, but what if you didn't actually host the files?

There's nothing preventing you from making an easily searchable index that LINKS to the respective manual download locations, as long as said manual download locations are legitimately legal. If you're linking to the manufacturer's download pages for them, it'd be hard to say it's not legal when the manufacturer is distributing them


Just a way around the rule, so to speak. It also has the benefit that if a manufacturer adjusts their manual but keeps the download intact (such as moving to Revision 6 instead of Revision 5), you may not always have to update the links