If you visit this page you can become a reseller for Hostgator (for a very small monthly fee): http://www.hostgator.com/resellers.shtml

This allows you to set up your own ISP with your own site, your own customers and your own corporation if you want. You're free to sell hosting to anyone who is willing to buy it from you.

However, let's say that you run such a hosting company and a spammer set up an account there. Every hosting check I do will show Hostgator as the host, not you. Therefore, I'd file my notices with Hostgator unaware of your existence as a separate company and a reseller.

The question is whether or not Hostgator is obligated to respond to the DMCA notice. If we follow the logic of this case, it isn't clear. The reason is A9 is indeed hosted by Amazon.com, If we go by networking tools alone, the host shows up as Amazon (we're ignoring the logic of “Duh, it's A9 you moron” for just a moment) so the filing with Amazon could be understandable (but none the less stupid)

You can see what I mean here:

http://whois.domaintools.com/72.21.206.133

So where is the line drawn? Amazon hosts A9 and has them on their servers on their IP addresses, how is that different from your imaginary host with Hostgator? From a technical standpoint, there isn't much difference and that's what worries me.

What may make the difference and this is an area of law I know nothing about is the relationship between the companies. I can't offer anything there and would love your feedback.

One question I do have and I could probably find out from reading through the previous filings is why on earth this is a 512(c) complaint? A9, best I understand, is an information location tool, which would make it 512(d).

That had me very confused as I read through this but I wasn't able to find the previous filings.

Thank you for your comment!