united-states contract-law software liability terms-of-service
SLA liability in case client break some law
<p>How does or can a Service Level Agreement (SLA) protect the provider from any liability in case the client knowingly breaks a law.</p>

<p>Example:
AWS is a web hosting provider that sells computing resources to clients.
The Clients can use these resources to host websites for example.
Let's assume a client uses such a resource to host an e-commerce site that sells illegal products (guns, drugs and such).
Another example would be that the client uses this resource to commit DDOS attacks (Denial of Service).</p>

<p>In what way a company like AWS can protects itself from any liability.
Again, in continuation to the above example here are the relevant agreements from the company:</p>

<p><a href="https://aws.amazon.com/aispl/service-terms/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">service-terms</a></p>

<p><a href="https://aws.amazon.com/agreement/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">agreement</a></p>

<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230_of_the_Communications_Decency_Act" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (47 U.S.C. § 230)</a>, insulates providers of Internet services from liability for the actions of their users if the arrangement is defined in a particular way (i.e. so that the user material is user generated content which the provider has no involvement in creating or deleting except as allowed by Section 230 in cases where the immunity from liability it establishes still exists) and if the provider puts in place certain policies for dealing with copyrighted material displayed by a user via the service (DACA takedown notices).</p>

<p>The remainder of the SLA operates as a contract between the user and the service provider governing liability of one to the other, in which the service provider generally disclaims liability to a great extent and requires the user to indemnify it for harms that are defined to be the responsibility of the user.</p>
