Cloud players ask government for clear guidelines
Channel requests set rules on policing web content in wake of Wilileaks saga
Channel requests set rules on policing web content in wake of Wikileaks saga
Cloud service providers want clearer guidance from the government on how culpable they are for the information stored and hosted on their servers.
Earlier this month, cloud services provider Amazon was forced to pull the plug on the Wikileaks web site, following complaints by politicians over its disclosure of classified information about the US government.
The company took the site off its servers within 24 hours of Joe Lieberman, chairman of the US Senate's Committee on Homeland Security, voicing his displeasure at Amazon's decision to host the site.
In a statement released at the time, Lieberman said: "[Amazon's] decision to cut off Wikileaks is the right decision and should set the standard for other companies. I call on any other company or organisation that is hosting Wikileaks to immediately terminate its relationship with them."
Andy Burton, chairman of the Cloud Industry Forum (CIF), said the Amazon/ Wikileaks case highlights the need for clarity on how liable cloud providers are for their users' behaviour.
"Cloud providers are simply offering an infrastructure to users, and that gives them very little control over who uses their services and for what purpose," he said.
"Also, there are thousands of new web sites being set up every day and many more than that being updated on a regular basis. It would be very difficult to police."
James Griffin, director of hosting strategy at Star, said monitoring what cloud services are being used for would be particularly difficult for larger providers.
"To be able to offer such a large-scale service requires a lot of automation on the technical side and that makes it logistically quite difficult to regulate content," Griffin explained.
To prevent offensive or copyright-infringing material being distributed via their services, cloud providers should ensure that they have a fair use policy in place, which outlines what their services can and cannot be used for, advised Burton.
In many cases, these policies also demonstrate to
consumers that the provider is willing to take action if its services are being abused.
Self-regulation is important, said Griffin, but he wants the government to issue guidance on exactly what role, if any, service providers should play in internet regulation.
"It is an issue that has been debated within the industry for many years," he said. "What we really need now is for the government to lay down some stern guidance and legislation so that the industry knows where it stands."
Burton said he would broadly welcome some clarity on the issue. He added: "What we do not want to do is get to a point where the industry is so regulated, it stifles growth."