November 5, 2007Internet Business Protection

Today, we live in a litigious society; like popcorn being popped in a kettle on the stove, new lawsuits are popping up by the handful, day in and day out; some are seemingly justified while others are outright ludicrous. In any case, lawsuits are a multi-million dollar a year pastime for US citizens - and internet business owners should really take note of this and take measures to protect their personal and business assets in this “sue-happy” society that we live in.

Certainly, setting up a proper business for your internet business endeavors is recommended, though not always seen as financially feasible or even warranted, if your internet biz isn’t bringing in money. However, it doesn’t matter how small or insignificant a website is; if it’s online, it susceptible to a being sued.

If you fail to have the proper disclaimers or terms in place, especially when you do not have a business setup to protect your personal assets; you personally might end up liable for any problems that arise stemming from your internet business.

For instance, did you know that there are strict laws regarding the tracking and storing information about minors (17 years old and younger)? If your website does not maintain the proper documentation to prohibit minors from accessing your website, you could be breaking the law each and every day; whether you know about it or not, you can be held liable for these breaches of the law.

Protecting yourself with a user agreement and privacy policy

Even if you cannot afford the $500 - $1,000 or more to hire a lawyer to draw up the legal documents for your website, you can at least try to protect yourself.

Here is a website that offers free terms of use templates and a free privacy policy template; while there is no guarantee of protection stated or implied, it’s a good start for you to protect your interests, which is especially important when you are buying and selling resell rights products, which inherently carry greater risk than other types of digital products simply because you are dealing with the sale of copyright protected material.

Here is the link to the free terms of service disclaimer.

Here is the link to the free privacy policy generator.

Please Note The Following:

This is not legal advice. This information is provided for entertainment purposes only; resellrightsdatabase.com, its management, affiliates, service providers, owners or employees disclaim any warranties or guarantees of any kind by using he above links. The use of the provided links are at your own risk.

Probably the best advice for any self-employed internet business owner would be to draw up a rough terms of service document on their own, and then when they can financially handle it, submit it to an attorney who is familiar with internet law to go over it for enforceability; this may be cheaper then having a lawyer draw up a service agreement from scratch.

Bottom line: if you’re doing any type of business on the internet from your own website, you should take precautionary measures now to avoid possible catastrophic losses in the future.