While it is incredibly easy to get a site up on the web these days, potential legal hassles abound. Whether you’re starting a site for personal use, business promotion, or community outreach, deal with the legalities as early as possible to avoid hot water later. In the meantime, below are a few hot-button issues to keep in mind.
Copyright: Did you know that websites are protected by copyright? The design, code, text, and graphics can all be copyrighted. With that being said, make sure you have a right to use everything on your site. The same goes for images and video. If you embed video from a site like YouTube, or music from a service like SoundCloud, you’re probably safer. But, don’t assume that just because you can easily rip content from another site, that you have a legal right to use it. This even goes for Google Images.
Trademarks: Pretty much all company names, product names, brand names and logos are trademarked to prevent competitors from deceiving consumers with a similar design or name. Be careful not to utilize trademarked content to draw visitors to your site. This goes for domain names as well! The standard for determining whether a trademark is being infringed is “likelihood of confusion” among consumers. With that being said, even similar, but not identical, names and logos may attract a threatening letter from an attorney to your mailbox. As a rule of thumb, be as original as possible!
Privacy: We all have come across a Privacy Policy on a website before. It’s there for a reason. In short, you cannot capture private information about visitors to your site and share or sell that information in any way without permission. If you collect information about website visitors, even for statistical purposes, you must disclose it. One other point – data privacy laws vary by country. Your best bet is to contact a lawyer to make sure you’re covered.
