Hypothetically speaking does using a server in another country lets say, Germany for example, provide any protection or not?
Just curious asking for a friend...
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Hypothetically speaking does using a server in another country lets say, Germany for example, provide any protection or not?
Just curious asking for a friend...
I'm not a lawyer, but I am in the networking field so I can share what I've been told from my legal department.
In general, the server has to abide by local laws first, then international. For sex-related sites having a server in a country with liberal views towards sex (Germany, Netherlands, Ireland for example) is safer than in the U.S., depending on content (are you streaming content, offering services, etc...)
For any U.S. action to the server itself requires a fairly lengthy legal process since it is physically on foreign soil. However they don't need to do that. It gets a bit technical but what they CAN and OFTEN do is seize the DNS domain name for the site via court order. Since most registrars have offices in the U.S. they must follow those court orders and turn ownership over to the requesting agency. The result is when a web browser asks for the IP address of your server, they are redirected to the FBI or whatever agency page saying your site was seized. The server itself is untouched and all your data will be there, but nobody can get to it unless they know the IP address. That's not a permanent shut down though, as all you need to do is register a new domain and wait for them to find it again.
Also, this is pretty much entirely dependent on the content and scope of the site. If you're asking for a good place to host your own page then you're pretty safe putting it anywhere outside the U.S. It won't generate enough traffic to cause notice and it won't be worth it to pursue for a single arrest.
The sites that really need to worry are those that can be used to coordinate/commit a crime (especially across state lines) or could facilitate human trafficking such as OH2, Eccie, or Listcrawler. They are easily found via Google, and depending on the interpretation of the law could be seen as promoting criminal activity.
Whatever you end up doing, do consult a lawyer with knowledge of international law before spending any money overseas. Your lawyer friend who handles real estate issues won't cut it.
Edit: Forgot to mention safety for people viewing your page. You'll want to make sure whatever server host you use has zero day logging, or no logging if possible. If the server itself is seized the logs could be used to identify the visitors of your page.