Gordon Firemark reports on this very troubling story:
Independent label Quote Unquote Records’ website was recently taken down by its web hosting provider, after the label couldn’t produce copyright registration certificates for songs posted on its website in mp3 format. . . .
This hosting provider, upon seeing mp3 files on the site, demanded proof that the label had the legal right to post them, and when the label couldn’t do so… summarily shut down the website. (Note… they had NOT received any form of take-down notice.. they did this on their own initiative).
That’s right: The host took it upon itself to take down its own customer’s songs from the customer’s website! That really brings new meaning to customer service!
Astonishingly, none of the sites reporting this story, including Slashdot, identifies this apparently incompetent hosting company, so we can’t pass that information on to you — unless someone lets us know…
And almost certainly they are unaware that copyright registration is not a legal requirement.