I've long been impressed by the success of Dreamhost's affiliate marketing program, so when I had a chance at ISPCON to talk to Josh and Dallas - co-founders of Dreamhost - I had to ask about the program. They gave some really candid insights. Enjoy!

(If you are reading the feed you won't see the embedded video, so click here to see it.)

I really enjoyed this panel discussion with four service providers who shared their insights. These guys are progressive examples of the evolution of the Internet service provider:

Dane Jasper, CEO, Sonic.net
Jonathan Snyder, president, CEO and director, KeyOn Communications
Dan Hoffman, president and CEO, M5 Networks
Rich Bader, president and CEO, EasyStreet Online Services

Moderator: Paul Stapleton, managing director, DH Capital LLC.

Call me a keener. I had two cups of coffee at breakfast and did this session at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday morning with David Snead and Isabel Wang.

The session focused on legal risks of the emerging opportunities for web hosts. While, I appreciate pragmatic legal counsel, the discussion of risk at this session far outweighed the discussion of opportunity. It was a bit of a buzz kill. The information and advice wasn't bad however, especially if you're a web host considering new opportunities.

Here's the recap.
The shift in web hosting services means:
- New contract issues
- Data retention is high risk
- Conduit status may be affected
- Pay attention to intellectual property

There's more detail after the jump.