I had no idea that this existed and was about to ask whether you knew if there was a place online that consolidated the many legal considerations one must take to start an online business, but then I found this page on the Citizen Media Law Project ( http://www.citmedialaw.org/legal-guide/legal-issues-consider... ), which covers both DMCA-related issues and how to pick hosting providers that will fight for your rights. The entire site seems to be a treasure trove of information about things like this. I'm posting this here in case it could help anyone else.
I notice the linked guide mentions DirectNIC as the US registrar with the most extensive guarantees against unnecessary domain name suspensions. Consider this a +1 recommendation.
We've used DirectNIC for nearly a decade and never had a problem even when Echostar (improperly) tried to make them take us down because of one of our clients. We also recommend http://www.puregig.com/ as a web hosting colo for the same reasons along with their distance from natural disasters.
