[weinzierl]

There is no beef, just evidence that they do to run their service as professionally as other more established providers, which was the original argument and premise of the discussion.

Hetzner is German company and subject to German law. The website they were hosting did not have the (in Germany) mandatory legal notice (Impressum) or any contact details. This shifts the responsibility to the provider (Providerhaftung). Ignoring legal requirements is hardly professional.

Also I would like to note that I did neither request them to give me their customer's details nor to shut down the site. All I wanted was them to work with their customer to have the offending image removed.

Also I am convinced the porn image was not malice but an accident. The scraper replaced all profile images with ones they probably scraped from a forum. I was just unlucky to get a very indecent one.

Had Hetzner collaborated I'm pretty sure this could have been resolved in no time.

[arghwhat]

Your expectations of what you wanted from Hetzner has nothing to do with their professionalism. They most certainly acted with outmost professionalism given the situation you describe, and the behavior to be expected from any hosting provider.

I get your frustration in the situation, but even if it would have been helpful to you, it would be extremely unprofessional for a hosting provider to invervene in the operations of its customers unless the customer violates the Terms of Service (an agreement you have no part in), a court order is made, or law enforcement makes a legally supported demand. Random legal notices sent by mail from strangers are not on this list, but could lead to Hetzner evaluating if a ToS violation is in effect that must be resolved.

If the customer is a business, it could be that they have breached the Impressum laws. It would have helped you if they had the impressum, but until legal action is taken it remains undecided if there is a violation, and if there was the consequence would be that the customer is liable for a written warning and in some cases a fine, as decided by the relevant authorities or a court of law.

[weinzierl]

I disagree. For one thing I think you misinterpret the legal situation. This is Germany, the provider is on the hook. Secondly, you do not have insight into the communication and I won't share it but I assure you their conduct was unprofessional.

[arghwhat]

The provider may be on the hook of legal consequences from authorities *if" their customer is a business offering services in Germany.

Nothing that would involve you as a third-party individual.

[echoangle]

I think leaving disputes to the customer and only acting on legal orders is actually the most professional thing a provider can do.