mdshare Posted January 16, 2009 Posted January 16, 2009 Future Sale of Your Business? If your online business is starting to be successful and generate positive revenue, have you ever considered that you might want to sell it for a profit in the future? If so, be sure that your Privacy Policy specifies that personal information collected may be transferred and shared in the event of a sale. If you don't do this prior to collecting personal information, you won't be able to pass it on to your purchaser. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) stipulated in recent settlements that personal information collected prior to posting this notice in your Privacy Policy will not be transferable in the event of a sale. And this personal information (your opt-in lists and customer lists) are the real value of your online business. Service Providers Do you use service providers to provide hosting, site maintenance, SEO services, or other site functions where they have access to your server? If you don't collect personal information, your answer to this question is immaterial, but if you do (and only an email address will suffice), you need to enter into privacy and security agreements with your service providers. The FTC stipulated in a couple of recent settlements that you would be liable if you don't. Registration Agreement Does your site require site visitors to register for certain benefits such as a membership or subscription rights? If so, you need an electronic agreement (a so-called "click-wrapped" agreement where the user clicks on "I ACCEPT"). Your agreement should be presented conspicuously in the registration process and it should require an affirmative act (clicking on "I ACCEPT") to complete the registration. You also need to be sure that all of your warranty disclaimers and limitations of liability pass muster. Collect Birth Dates? Do you collect the date of birth as part of your registration process? If so, and if this date indicates that children under 13 are registering, you will be liable for substantial damages under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) if you do not comply with COPPA's stringent requirements. You should either modify your information collection practices or comply with COPPA, or both. Blogs, etc. Have you recently added a blog or any other functionality that permits visitors/members to post text or digital files to your site? Or, do you plan to do so as part of your marketing plans for 2009? If so, you need to have a DMCA notice in your Terms of Use and you also need to file a DMCA Registration form with the U.S. Copyright Office. These steps will create a "safe harbor" from strict liability for copyright infringement if a site visitor posts infringing material to your site. Copyright Notice Check Your Copyright Notice. Your copyright notice consists of the following elements: the word "copyright" or copyright symbol (c in a circle) followed by the year of first publication followed by the name of the copyright owner. It's also a good idea to add "All rights reserved worldwide". Example: Copyright 1996-09 Digital Contracts, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide. Note that if you update your site from time to time, you should add a date range reflecting the fact that the site has been updated each year within the date range. If you haven't updated yet for 2009, do it now. Info taken from www.digicontracts.com Quote
chaoswar4u Posted January 20, 2009 Posted January 20, 2009 Re: 2009 Legal Rules for your website Copyright Notice??? I was just thinking how far this goes. Im well aware that images or a part of this as well as game content etc but where does the copyright laws stand regarding templates. For example say I brought a template from one of these template sites and had it installed. Would I be right in thinking that this cant be copyrighted from someone else adding the same template to another game as the template is purchased by many people over time?? Just a little confused. Quote
03laceys Posted January 20, 2009 Posted January 20, 2009 Re: 2009 Legal Rules for your website Copyright Notice??? I was just thinking how far this goes. Im well aware that images or a part of this as well as game content etc but where does the copyright laws stand regarding templates. For example say I brought a template from one of these template sites and had it installed. Would I be right in thinking that this cant be copyrighted from someone else adding the same template to another game as the template is purchased by many people over time?? Just a little confused. The copyright would stand with the site/author you bought it from, and you would be holding a licence to use it. So i belive if you want to state it is copright your copright would be similer to this... Copyright ? 2008-09 original author. All rights reserved worldwide. Quote
mdshare Posted January 21, 2009 Author Posted January 21, 2009 Re: 2009 Legal Rules for your website ? Copyright xxxx-2009 yourwebsite.tld , All rights reserved worldwide. Theme ? Copyright by author Quote
a_bertrand Posted January 21, 2009 Posted January 21, 2009 Re: 2009 Legal Rules for your website Good info, but what about sites which doesn't reside in the US? I don't think the same laws can be applied, right? So for me those laws applies only on website hosted directly on the US territory. Quote
mdshare Posted January 21, 2009 Author Posted January 21, 2009 Re: 2009 Legal Rules for your website yea this info is US hosted sites only. For other countries it will be a bit of digging to find the relevant info. Quote
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