Questions related to the law and how it relates to websites and their management.
37
votes
5answers
547 views
What are some good resources for generating privacy policies and terms of use?
We've determined that our website needs a privacy policy and a terms of use page to protect our interests. Are there automated tools that will generate these for us? How do we go about creating ...
28
votes
5answers
1k views
How do I copyright my website?
My website has been in development for a long time and cost a lot of money. How do I go about securing an enforceable copyright on my website design and what is the proper way to post a copyright ...
20
votes
7answers
416 views
Are there any downsides of including google-analytics on your website?
I am in particular concerned with legal implications due to strong privacy legislations. However, I was also thinking about performance and false results by users blocking it.
14
votes
1answer
467 views
What do I do if a user uploads child pornography?
If my website allows uploading images (which are not moderated), what action do I take if a user uploads child pornography?
I already make it easy to report images, and have never had this problem ...
12
votes
5answers
620 views
When does a website require a privacy policy and/or terms of use?
I am curious to know if every website should have a privacy policy and/or a terms of use page. What are the legal implications if a site doesn't have them? Are there certain categories of websites ...
10
votes
2answers
390 views
Legal Web Fonts & Licensing
So I'm a little confused in regards to legality of using fonts for web.
Often from designers I get a PSD file and it uses a special font, and the font is supplied. However attempting to convert the ...
10
votes
2answers
139 views
Are date of birth forms necessary for alcoholic websites?
I've noticed that many beer and spirits companies often require you to enter your date of birth before entering their site (ex. Budweiser.com).
Is this form legally required? Or is it just a popular ...
8
votes
2answers
272 views
What can I do if someone is spoofing my site?
Someone registered a domain name that is close to mine used a different suffix (.info) and ripped off the UI. They took a screenshot of our homepage put it on their site and put up a modal window ...
8
votes
1answer
839 views
Am I legally liable for user generated content and comments?
I know that it is in your best interest to enforce specific policies in regards to what is appropriate for your site, but are there any legal issues with not filtering their content?
For example, ...
7
votes
4answers
341 views
Competing against the same business name in search results
A client of mine had an acrimonious split with their business partner. My client owns the legal business entities but unfortunately the other partner has the server/domain details. The other partner ...
7
votes
4answers
217 views
What benefit do you get from posting terms of service, privacy policy, etc.?
Just wondering why you'd post terms of service, privacy policy, etc. on a website.
7
votes
1answer
185 views
Can I be charged for letting a domain expire?
A few months ago I let a domain expire that I no longer wanted. I just received a bill from a collections agency saying that I owe about $100 because although I let the domain expire, it's necessary ...
7
votes
3answers
568 views
Where do blogs get their pictures?
I see a lot of blogs that are full of picture galleries, of celebrities for example, and I wonder how they get all these pictures.
Do most blogs just take pictures from Google images? or is there ...
7
votes
2answers
152 views
Alot of Pirated Material on Someone's Website - What Can Be Done?
We've developed our website for over 10 years. Recently a website in China has begun to pirate our images and product descriptions (they are showing "new" March offerings). Nearly all of the items ...
7
votes
2answers
284 views
Legal standing for a copyright notice placed by prior web developer? (long backstory)
Let's say a prior web developer placed a copyright notice on a website in the web developer's and not the client's name. The prior web developer has been hostile and actually took the site down for ...
7
votes
3answers
123 views
Is it safe to have no TOS or PP?
I have coded my own forums from the ground up. I have tried my best to make my code as secure as possible and encrypting everything I can. I want to use this forum for a Minecraft server. I have one ...
6
votes
2answers
184 views
Where is the line drawn with domain names which include a trademark?
A search on google for "iphone developer" turns up loads of websites which have "iphone" in them, a trademarked name by Apple.
So I'm led to believe that having a domain such as iphonedeveloper.com ...
6
votes
2answers
192 views
Is it legal to host very, very detailed summaries of copyrighted material?
I have a website where people can discuss books of various topics, mostly technical and practical stuff. Lately I have noticed that some members are posting very, very detailed summaries/reviews of ...
6
votes
5answers
203 views
What do I need to do to enable my site to accept credit cards?
I want to store my customers' credit card information in my database so that they can quickly check out again without having to re-enter their info. What do I need to know about security/https/etc to ...
6
votes
1answer
2k views
Am I allowed to save basic user data from Facebook in my own web app's database?
In general my app deals with data that is unrelated to Facebook but also includes a Graph API based app.
So it would be helpful for someone to login with Facebook (without registering in my own web ...
6
votes
1answer
1k views
Can I legally use a competitor's business name on my site to compare products?
Simply put, does a company have any grounds for legal recourse if their name is used on a competitor's website in the following manner?
{Product Title and Description} (Comparable to {Competitor's ...
5
votes
3answers
288 views
Where to place privacy, legal, etc info on a website?
Every website I've ever been to has links to legal, privacy, tos, etc on the bottom of every page.
Is this required?
Can I have all that info on a specific about page rather than on every page?
5
votes
7answers
409 views
Hacked by our own hosting company!
OK, so our hosting company decided to clone our site and database onto a new serve. Without our knowledge or permission they then edited our code to point to the new database. The old server was left ...
5
votes
1answer
1k views
What is the current legal status of magnet links?
Prelude: I develop a cloud service which could be described as dropbox meets torrents and as side effect it enables distribution of arbitrary content via magnet links. Certain amount of magnet links ...
5
votes
2answers
353 views
Legal terms required to email users - is opt in necessary
Creating a new site requiring membership to participate. I don't anticipate emailing members at this time except for password related issues. Perhaps down the road emails will be necessary.
I ...
5
votes
1answer
238 views
Legal information on a website
I'm in the process of re-developing my website.
We're currently a non-monetary website, funded entirely by ourselves, but we'd like to start earning some money from adverts and possibly paid content.
...
5
votes
1answer
149 views
domain name legal takeover
I was wondering; if I buy a domain name, say www.bananapeel.com. Then after a couple of years my site becomes big with plenty of revenue. Because of this someone decides to trademark the name ...
5
votes
1answer
135 views
Can a company take my domain away from me?
I have a domain which coincidentally is the same name of a company. Is there any legal way in which this company can take my domain away from me?
5
votes
1answer
86 views
What liability concerns do advertising vendors raise, and how can I address them?
One of the websites I administer wants to provide free advertising in the form of direct links to vendors at an event they are running. Up until now, there has been no advertising whatsoever on the ...
5
votes
2answers
96 views
Someone Reported That My Company Is Out Of Business [closed]
I Googled our company name and found that someone had given us a review on the maps site. He gave us a 1 star review and his review was simply "Out of Business". We are definitely NOT out of ...
5
votes
1answer
84 views
Does a DMCA takedown require you to prevent the same file from being uploaded again?
If I allow users to upload media (images, videos, etc.) and I get a DMCA takedown notice for a specific file, do I have to prevent users from uploading that same file in the future?
4
votes
2answers
352 views
Are there any legal implications to reading a user's privates messages on a forum?
I'm the webmaster of a forum and we are having trouble with a user and we suspect he uses privates messages to do illegal business (not illicit, but illegal according to the forum rules).
Are their ...
4
votes
4answers
215 views
Is there any issue with using the word Official in a domain name?
I want to grab a new domain name for a site I look after but many of the best word combinations are taken.
Is there any legal issue with using the word official in a domain name?
For example: ...
4
votes
2answers
189 views
I own a domain and recently got a Trademark Infringement for it can I offer to sell it to them?
I own a domain related to an iPhone Game and have been sent a Trademark Infringement on said domain by the company.
It makes me a few dollars a month but nothing great, And I would like to offer to ...
4
votes
4answers
261 views
Copyright word or symbol
After reading this post I was wondering which is best to use for websites out of the following,
Copyright © 2010 "COMPANY"
© 2010
Copyright 2010
Also, if we license everything we produce ...
4
votes
2answers
302 views
Can embedding a content from another website be considered as a violation of copyright law?
I would like to embed a content from another website (a webcam object) to my website. Can it be considered as a violation of copyright law? Both my website and the embedded are within EU. There is no ...
4
votes
2answers
329 views
Is collecting IP address and user agents on form submission illegal in the U.S.?
I'm creating a website where I collect the name, email, state, and an optional photo of a user. Before the user submits the form, they have to agree to the terms of the site. For testing and ...
4
votes
2answers
275 views
Can someone sue me/take my domain?
I have found a great domain that isn't in use, but the .com and .net domains are already taken. There's nothing on the domains though, it just says they are registered with Network Solutions and are ...
4
votes
1answer
255 views
Rss legal issues
I know it is illegal to post full articles of a website on yours beacuse of copyright.
Is it legal to post the rss feeds of a website on your website?
4
votes
2answers
55 views
How should creative commons attribution for images be shown?
Clicking through from Flickr to the CreativeCommons.org definition for "Some Rights Reserved" you find that you can reuse an image as long as you provide attribution.
If we want to use the image in ...
4
votes
2answers
159 views
Am I legally required to remove all data associated with a customer (UK)?
A customer has asked that we remove all our stored information from our database.
From a moral standpoint, we have no problem with this, but simply deleting all the data will leave us with orders ...
4
votes
1answer
88 views
The Necessity of a Disclaimer
I am a blogger. I write science articles. I study science and write articles in my blog in simple words for the general public to understand. Does this require a disclaimer as I do not want to see ...
4
votes
4answers
166 views
Where can i get photo collection for website/template
I'm developing website templates and wonder how to get (free or buy) photos of product sample for my templates. For example, collection if furniture, shirts, lingerie? Maybe you have preferences with ...
4
votes
3answers
187 views
Can I place a directory that lists other companies contact details on my commercial website?
Can I place a directory that lists other companies contact details and other relavent information on my commercial website?
We are a magazine site and this would be placed for an additional resource ...
4
votes
1answer
111 views
Turning my website into a non-profit
I was given an established website about a year ago. It makes some money on ads, but not much (less than 10k/year). I am no longer able to manage the site and am considering turning it over to another ...
4
votes
2answers
932 views
Hosting torrent tracker in legal countries
In what countries it is legal to host torrent traacker? I mean without future issues with laws like illegal movie, software downloading.
3
votes
3answers
78 views
Privacy policy and terms of use language
I have a Czech registered business with which I'm serving a web app mostly (but not exclusively) targeted to Italian customers. The server is in Amsterdam. The site will be multilingual (with 4 ...
3
votes
2answers
60 views
How to safely saving users' data and NOT get responsibility of users' data?
I am programming a website which will save up users' inputs for their next visits. For example, I might save their phone numbers. The user will know that I save their phone numbers. However, do I need ...
3
votes
1answer
55 views
What is “condition of link to developer's website” condition in license
I want to use following icons for my commercial website for free.
http://www.gettyicons.com/free-icon/112/must-have-icon-set/free-remove-icon-png/
According to to above link:
Visual Pharm is ...
3
votes
1answer
115 views
Can I use a .net domain for selling goods?
I have a .net domain. I plan to use it for selling goods/commercials. Is that ok? Are there any rules about domain usage?
Thanks in advance.
