ReHosting

Rehosting is the practice of hosting a copy of digital content on a different hosting platform or server from the original source. It may involve creating a mirror, backup, or redistribute the same files to improve availability, resilience, or geographic reach. Rehosting can be legitimate when performed with proper rights, licenses, or consent, such as content distributed under open licenses, official mirrors of software, or backups maintained for disaster recovery.

Legitimate rehosting includes software distribution mirrors (for example, official repository mirrors), backups stored for redundancy, or content delivery networks that cache and serve copies to users. Open-source projects may list alternative hosting locations to ensure accessibility if one site is unavailable. In scholarly or archival contexts, rehosting may preserve historical versions when the original source becomes unreachable.

However, rehosting can also enable copyright infringement or the spread of malware when copies are posted without permission or as part of piracy networks. Many platforms prohibit unauthorized rehosting of copyrighted material and may remove mirrors upon takedown requests. Rehosting leaked materials or sensitive data can raise ethical and legal concerns and may expose hosts to liability or enforcement actions.

From a technical perspective, rehosting requires monitoring for license compliance, maintaining data integrity during transfer, and coordinating updates across copies. Platforms may implement checksums, version pins, or automated takedown workflows. Best practices include using official mirrors, clearly indicating licensing, and obtaining consent before redistribution.

Rehosting is thus a contextual practice; its acceptability and legality depend on rights, purposes, and platform policies.