Hello, I'm looking for a bit of legal advice. I've recently taken on a new client, I am to be managing 8 of their websites and will be transferring them one by one to my servers. Part of my contract states:
You are responsible for ensuring that the website or associated works will operate legally and be used solely for lawful means. It is your sole responsibility to ensure that all content provided for use in your project has been obtained legally and that all necessary rights and permissions have been obtained. We cannot be held responsible for the illegal use of content. We reserve the right to remove any website from our servers (if hosted by us) if we have reason to believe that it is operating illegally.
The client seems to have a real issue with this point - even to the point that they sent the contract back and annotated parts, with this particular clause he stated "you will never remove any of my sites unless under my express permission, if you do so I will take legal action against your business". I mean, this kind of fills me with dread from the start... I then politely emailed back after making a couple of amendments, but I included this point and I don't want to remove it - he then sent back another annotated version saying "only with my permission".
If his website is running illegally or promoting illegal activities/substances etc. I have the right to remove the website from my server without warning right? I have later in the contract indemnified myself, although I don't think I can indemnify myself if I knowingly allow a website to operate illegally on my servers and take a "not my problem" approach. Can someone provide some advice on this? Does anyone know of a polite way to tell the client that I don't need their permission to remove a site from my servers if it is operating outside of the law?
Thanks, Danny