--- title: "Offshore Hosting Glossary: Key Terms in Plain English" description: "DMCA, DSA, KYC, MLAT, 14 Eyes, warrant canary, bulletproof hosting, IPMI, RAID and more: offshore hosting terms defined in plain English." url: https://offshoreserv.com/glossary lang: en updated: 2026-09-27 source: HTML page at the url above (canonical); this is its Markdown version --- Glossary # Offshore hosting glossary. Key terms in plain English. The law, the payments and the hardware behind offshore hosting, one short definition at a time, with a link to where we explain each term in depth. 42 terms Updated 26 September 2026 Most looked up - DMCA Law - Digital Services Act Law - KYC Privacy - Warrant canary Privacy 3 subjectsLinkable anchors Offshore hosting has its own vocabulary, borrowed from copyright law, privacy law, cryptocurrency and data centers. This glossary defines the terms you will meet on our site and elsewhere, in a few plain sentences each, with a link to where we explain them in depth. The terms are grouped by subject; every one has its own anchor, so you can link to it. ## Law and takedowns ### DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) A United States law from 1998. Its section 512 lets online service providers avoid liability for their users' copyright infringement if they remove material quickly when they receive a valid notice. It is US law: a DMCA notice has no legal force against a server in another country. More: [DMCA-ignored hosting, explained](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/dmca-ignored-hosting-explained). ### DMCA-ignored hosting Hosting in a country where the US DMCA does not apply, by a host that does not act on DMCA notices. It does not mean that no law applies: the copyright law of the server's country still does, and its courts can order a removal. More: [our DMCA-ignored hosting](https://offshoreserv.com/dmca-ignored-hosting) and [DMCA-ignored countries](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/dmca-ignored-countries). ### Notice and takedown The procedure in which a rights holder sends a host a notice identifying allegedly infringing material, and the host removes or disables it to keep its liability protection. The DMCA's version is the best known; many countries have their own. ### Counter-notice The customer's answer to a takedown notice, stating that the removal was a mistake or that the material is lawful. Under the DMCA, a host restores the material after a counter-notice unless the rights holder files a lawsuit within the statutory window. ### Safe harbor A legal protection that shields a host from liability for what its customers store, as long as the host meets certain conditions, such as acting on valid notices. The DMCA and the EU Digital Services Act each define their own. ### Digital Services Act (DSA) EU Regulation 2022/2065, which sets the rules for online intermediaries in the European Union and applies in full since 17 February 2024. For a hosting provider it means a liability exemption, no general duty to monitor content, and a formal notice-and-action procedure. More: [what the DSA means for hosting](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/digital-services-act-hosting). ### Notice and action The DSA's procedure for reporting illegal content to a host: a notice must explain why the content is illegal, locate it precisely and identify the sender, and the host must decide on it and explain its decision. It applies to our servers in EU countries. ### Court order A decision of a court that can require a host to remove content or disclose data. For an offshore server, what counts is a court of the country where the server runs: a foreign order must usually go through that country's courts first. ### MLAT (mutual legal assistance treaty) A treaty between countries for requesting evidence across borders. When authorities in one country want data held by a host in another, they typically send an MLAT request, which the other country's authorities examine under their own law. ### Jurisdiction The country whose laws and courts govern something. For hosting, the server's jurisdiction decides which copyright, privacy and takedown rules apply to the content, while your own country's law still applies to you. More: [our seven jurisdictions compared](https://offshoreserv.com/locations). ### Data retention A legal duty for telecom operators to keep traffic records, such as who connected to whom and when, for a set period. The EU-wide directive was struck down in 2014, and several national courts, including Romania's and Bulgaria's, annulled their own laws. ### GDPR The EU General Data Protection Regulation (2016/679), which governs how personal data is collected and processed in the European Economic Area. It applies to our servers in EU countries and, through the EEA Agreement, in Iceland. ### 5, 9 and 14 Eyes Intelligence-sharing arrangements between countries. The Five Eyes are the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand; the Nine and Fourteen Eyes add European partners, including the Netherlands. Membership says nothing about a country's hosting law, but some customers take it into account. More: [5, 9 and 14 Eyes countries and what they mean for hosting](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/14-eyes-countries-hosting). ### IMMI (Icelandic Modern Media Initiative) A resolution adopted by Iceland's parliament in 2010 that asked the government to build strong protections for journalists, sources and publishers. It is a policy statement, not a statute, but it shaped Iceland's reputation as a free-speech jurisdiction. More: [hosting in Iceland](https://offshoreserv.com/locations/iceland). ### Bulletproof hosting Hosting sold as immune to any complaint or law, typically to criminals running malware, spam or fraud. Authorities seize such hosts and sanction their operators. Offshore hosting is different: it follows the law of its jurisdictions and removes abuse. More: [offshore vs bulletproof hosting](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/offshore-vs-bulletproof-hosting). ### Acceptable use policy (AUP) The contract clause that lists what customers may and may not do with their servers. Ours allows anything legal in the server's jurisdiction and lists a short set of zero-tolerance abuse, such as malware, spam, phishing and attacks. More: [our acceptable use policy](https://offshoreserv.com/acceptable-use-policy). ### Abuse report A complaint about harmful activity coming from a server, such as spam, phishing or an attack. Every host receives them; what matters is that it checks each one and acts on real abuse. ## Privacy and payments ### KYC (know your customer) Identity verification before a sale: an ID document, sometimes a selfie, a phone number or a card in your name. Many hosts run it because card payments can be reversed. We do not run it at all. More: [no-KYC hosting explained](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/no-kyc-hosting-explained). ### No-KYC hosting Hosting you can buy and use without proving who you are. At OffshoreServ an account is an email address and a password, paid in cryptocurrency. It does not suspend the law: local courts and our acceptable use policy still apply. More: [no KYC VPS](https://offshoreserv.com/no-kyc-vps). ### Warrant canary A signed statement, published at regular intervals, that a provider has not received certain secret orders. If a statement stops being renewed, readers can draw their own conclusions. Ours is signed with our PGP key and renewed every quarter. More: [what a warrant canary is](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/what-is-a-warrant-canary) and [our canary](https://offshoreserv.com/warrant-canary). ### Transparency report A regular publication of how many complaints, court orders and government requests a provider received and how it answered them, without customer data. Ours is published every quarter. More: [our transparency report](https://offshoreserv.com/transparency-report). ### PGP key and fingerprint A public key used to verify signatures and to encrypt messages with OpenPGP software such as GnuPG. The fingerprint is a short hash of the key: compare it through a second channel before you trust a signature. More: [our PGP key](https://offshoreserv.com/pgp). ### Monero (XMR) A cryptocurrency private by default: ring signatures hide the sender, one-time stealth addresses hide the receiver, and RingCT hides the amount. That makes it the private way to pay for a server. More: [Monero VPS](https://offshoreserv.com/monero-vps) and [running a Monero node on a VPS](https://offshoreserv.com/docs/vps/bitcoin-monero-node). ### Confirmations The number of blocks added to a blockchain after a transaction, a measure of how final it is. We credit a top-up after 1 confirmation for Bitcoin, 10 for Monero, 12 for Ethereum and Tether, and once a Solana payment is finalized. ### Rate lock The period during which the crypto amount on a payment page is guaranteed, whatever the market does: 30 minutes on our payment pages, 45 minutes for Bitcoin and Monero. ### Stablecoin A token designed to keep a steady value against a currency, such as Tether (USDT) against the US dollar. Paying in a stablecoin removes price swings between buying the coin and paying with it. More: [USDT VPS](https://offshoreserv.com/usdt-vps). ### Top-up bonus Credit we add to every balance top-up, from +10% at $100 to +50% from $1,000. It pays for any server or renewal but cannot be withdrawn. More: [paying with crypto](https://offshoreserv.com/crypto-payments). ### Tor, relays, bridges and onion services Tor is a network that routes traffic through three relays so that no single one knows both ends. Relays forward traffic, bridges are unlisted entry relays for censored users, exit relays send traffic to the open internet, and onion services are sites reachable only inside Tor. All are allowed on our servers. More: [run a Tor relay, bridge or onion service on a VPS](https://offshoreserv.com/docs/vps/tor-relay). ### VPN A virtual private network: an encrypted tunnel between your device and a server, so that websites see the server's address instead of yours. A small VPS is enough to run your own. More: [an offshore VPS for your VPN](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/offshore-vps-for-vpn). ## Servers and network ### VPS (virtual private server) A virtual machine with its own operating system, dedicated CPU and memory, running next to others on one physical server. Ours use KVM virtualization on NVMe storage, with full root access. More: [offshore VPS](https://offshoreserv.com/offshore-vps). ### KVM Kernel-based Virtual Machine, the Linux hypervisor. A KVM guest runs its own kernel, so you can load kernel modules, such as WireGuard, and boot your own ISO image. More: [what a VPS provider can see on a KVM host](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/what-can-your-vps-provider-see). ### Dedicated server (bare metal) A whole physical server for one customer: no virtualization layer and no neighbors. It suits steady heavy workloads, large storage and full hardware control. More: [offshore dedicated servers](https://offshoreserv.com/offshore-dedicated-servers) and [VPS vs dedicated server](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/vps-vs-dedicated-server). ### IPMI and KVM console Out-of-band management of a dedicated server through its baseboard management controller: power control, the BIOS, a remote screen and keyboard, and mounting an ISO, even when the operating system is down. More: [using IPMI](https://offshoreserv.com/docs/dedicated/ipmi). ### NVMe A storage protocol that connects flash drives directly over PCI Express, much faster than SATA. Every VPS and most of our dedicated servers run on NVMe. ### RAID Combining several disks so that the array survives a disk failure, gains speed, or both. RAID 1 mirrors, RAID 10 mirrors and stripes, RAID 5 and 6 store parity. RAID is not a backup. More: [choosing a RAID layout](https://offshoreserv.com/docs/dedicated/raid). ### Unmetered bandwidth A port billed at a fixed price, with no charge per gigabyte transferred. Ours is unmetered under fair use; the 10 Gbps server is sold for continuous use of its full port. More: [the 10 Gbps unmetered server](https://offshoreserv.com/offshore-dedicated-servers/10gbps). ### DDoS mitigation Filtering that absorbs a distributed denial-of-service attack, a flood of traffic meant to knock a server offline, before it reaches the server. It is included on every server we sell. ### Reverse DNS (PTR record) The record that maps an IP address back to a hostname. Mail servers in particular need a matching reverse DNS entry; you can request one from a server's page in the client area. ### Latency The time a packet takes to travel to a server and back, in milliseconds. It depends mostly on distance: pick the location closest to your users. More: [latency from 20 cities](https://offshoreserv.com/network). ### Windows RDP Remote Desktop Protocol, Microsoft's way to use a Windows computer over the network. An RDP server is a Windows machine you control from any device. More: [offshore RDP](https://offshoreserv.com/offshore-rdp) and [a forex VPS for MT4 and MT5](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/forex-vps-mt4-mt5). ### VRAM The memory on a graphics card. For AI, it decides which models fit: a model's weights, its context and the runtime must fit in VRAM to run at full speed. More: [how much VRAM an LLM needs](https://offshoreserv.com/blog/how-much-vram-for-llms). ### NVLink NVIDIA's direct link between GPUs, much faster than PCI Express. On H100 servers it reaches 900 GB/s per GPU, which matters when a model or a training run is split across several GPUs. More: [H100 servers](https://offshoreserv.com/offshore-gpu-servers/h100). --- OffshoreServ is an offshore hosting provider: VPS, dedicated servers, Windows RDP and GPU servers in seven jurisdictions (Iceland, Switzerland, Moldova, Romania, the Netherlands, Bulgaria and Malaysia), paid only in cryptocurrency (Bitcoin, Ethereum, Monero, Tether (USDT) and Solana), with no identity checks (no KYC). Prices and plans: https://offshoreserv.com/pricing · Answers: https://offshoreserv.com/faq · Every page: https://offshoreserv.com/llms.txt