

How do you write a "terms of use" for a website? - gcheong

Is it possibly to do without a lawyer? What would it cost to have a lawyer write one? Are there any guides, templates, etc., available that give suggestions on what to cover?
======
epi0Bauqu
There are a lot of concepts and subtleties that underly a TOS document.
However, to get a decent one, all you have to do is pick a big relatively
similar Internet site, and copy theirs. Replace their name with yours, and
their jurisdictional information with yours (e.g. state names). That's the
starting point. Then look at the other big Internet sites, and copy anything
you feel is applicable. Then read it slowly. If you don't understand anything,
post it here and someone can probably help you understand what it is talking
about.

If you really want to understand what is going on, I suggest reading this
book: [http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Commerce-Ronald-J-
Mann/dp/0...](http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-Commerce-Ronald-J-
Mann/dp/0735552363/) and the cases and statutes it references. But this is
really unnecessary to get something decent.

I don't recommend hiring a lawyer. They will either go through basically the
same process as described above anyway and then charge you a lot for it. If
you have a specific issue with your site, you might want to hire a lawyer to
help you draft specific provisions that deal with that issue. But seriously,
do you have an issue that facebook/craigslist/ebay/microsoft/amazon/etc.
don't?

~~~
vegashacker
But is it legal to copy (parts of) someone else's TOS doc?

What about those "pay $20 for a legal document" websites?

~~~
vegashacker
In my searching I found a Creative Commons'd TOS for Wordpress here:
<http://photomatt.net/2006/04/05/open-source-legal-docs/>

I'm actually in search of a web hosting agreement so I couldn't use this one.
I needed to move pretty fast, so I just forked over $29 to these guys:
<http://contractedge.com/>

------
myoung8
My best advice is to write it in plain and simple English. A ToS doesn't have
to be written in legalese. For a good example (that got an award for being so
good), check out BillMonk's ToS and Privacy Policy. They wrote it themselves
with the help of a Nolo book (available at your local library) if I remember
correctly.

If you really want to use legalese, just find a ToS from a website similar to
yours and adapt it to your specific needs.

~~~
gcheong
Thanks for the advice! -Greg

------
petesmithy
Sorry rkabir, but I think what Guy's talking about is the legal work that goes
into the negotiation of an investment, takeover or IPO.

For a bootstrapped start-up, getting a lawyer to write your ToS and Privacy
Policy would be wasteful.

epi0Bauqu you've nailed it: who's got "an issue that
facebook/craigslist/ebay/microsoft/amazon/etc. don't?"

------
rkabir
Interesting that the comments on here (so far) are the exact opposite of Guy
Kawasaki's sentiments:

<http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2007/06/482413_for_lega.html>

"You could do less legal work and do it cheaper, but if you ever want to raise
venture capital much less go public or get acquired for more than scrap value,
this is not the place to save a few thousand bucks. If you're negotiating an
investment or a liquidity event, you want someone who worked at Brobeck, Baker
& McKenzie, and Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati--as opposed to your uncle
the divorce lawyer from Penny, Wise, & Pound Foolish or
myinstantincorporation4less.com--not only for her expertise but to show
opposing counsel that you're not clueless."

Just some more information to think about...

~~~
randallsquared
Those comments of Guy's were about incorporation.

~~~
RyanGWU82
Actually, those comments were related to all of the legal concerns in Guy's
"startup," including incorporation, trademarks, discussion of copyright and
liability issues, and drafting a Terms of Use agreement.

------
rms
For my bootstrapped biotech startup, I paid about $1000 for my terms of
service. My terms of service are also the disclaimer, which is important in my
industry because there's a serious risk of liability which just isn't much of
an issue in web tech.

------
steve
thanks, I've been wondering about this too. Does the same advice hold for
privacy policies?

