Who owns the website in a hosted solution?

[kevin32]

There are many websites that offer hosted solutions where they install, configure and manage your website on their servers using their own software. I have 2 questions about this:

1. How much of my website do I own in this agreement? What part of the website is considered my intellectual property?

2. What if I want to sell my website in the future? Does the web host have a say in what portion of the website is sold, or what percentage they receive from the sale of my website? Thanks.

[jimbeetle]

My guess is that it would depend on the host's terms of service, which could be just about anything.

[Kendo]

You need to be careful here, because if you are "renting" web hosting with a CMS or shopping cart included, you may not be able to take that software with you. This means that you may only be entitled to the data, which may not be of any use at all if you can't import it into a similar system.

[phranque]

welcome to WebmasterWorld, kevin32!

the answers to your questions would depend on the terms of service of the hosting provider and perhaps the IP laws of the applicable jurisdiction(s).