11. Guilty until proven innocent

Web sites are governed by national and international laws. Know what they are and how they affect you. Be aware; be very aware.

You can flirt all you want with the law (there are some very frustrated paralegals out there who will thank you for it) but its long hand won’t feel nice on your shoulder!

There’s more to selling than taking cash and sending goods; and posting articles and information on the internet is not so simple. There are laws in place governing your web site, both in your country and those where the content might be read or you ship products to. Ignoring your legal obligations is foolhardy and dangerous.

Publish And Be Damned

You can’t simply write something about Mr X unless it’s true, and, should he take exception to your scribblings, more often than not you’ll have to prove that it’s true rather than Mr X prove that it isn’t. No matter how strongly you feel or how badly you think that you have been treated, publishing libellous statements on the internet is no different than publishing them in a book or magazine. You will be taken to court, it will be very expensive if you are in the wrong and it will be a painful experience – all because of hasty typing. If you are posting information on your web site, check and re-check it before going live.

It Wasn’t Me!

If you are selling products built by a manufacturer, or you are posting comments, news or information that you or your company did not create, you must include a disclaimer on your site explaining your arrangement with third-party suppliers. This won’t dilute what you’re selling or posting; it’s a simple explanation that content is drawn from various sources and, therefore, you can’t be held responsible for misinformation, errors, omissions or the views of suppliers. This is not cowardice; it’s your responsibility as an aggregator of data, and your protection should things goes horribly wrong.

Batteries Not Included

Most countries now empower their citizens with statutory consumer rights. Statutory rights differ wildly from country to country, but fundamentally all customers have a right to receive the product they paid for, to receive a product free from defect and to return it if it does not perform to their expectations. If you are a bona fide retailer, this should not be viewed as a problem. If the goods are faulty, then you have a case to raise with the manufacturer or supplier. If the goods are not as advertised, then you need to adjust the information available on your web site. If the customer received a completely different item than that ordered, then you have a problem with your supply chain. All of the problems a customer might find with your service or products are faults that need to be addressed by you.

In God We Trust

Many people do, but when tempers start flaring you need a more mundane court of law to decide any serious disputes between web site and user. Specify under which laws you or your company are operating. If there is a dispute, which country’s law will govern the proceedings? It is absolutely paramount that you include on your web site contact and company details (if applicable), and explain the contract you and the consumer are entering into when they view/download/buy/quote/steal images from your site. Leave nothing out and constantly revisit your legal pages to ensure that they are still ‘legal’ and up to date.

I’ve Only Been Once, But I Still Have Rights!

Users, whether they are accidentally ‘just looking’ or hard-core fans of every one of your web pages, have rights. Thankfully, for those of you selling products, your users tend to make decisions such as accepting cookies at browser level, which means, if you want to, you can leave cookies on their browser to personalise content and ‘help’ them come back to relevant pages in the future. Add a disclaimer if your web site points to any other site or source of content on the web. This includes links to friends or associate company web sites. If you have no control over their content you should make sure that you are not held responsible for what they do wrong.

How did it go?

Q. We don’t sell through our web site and there’s no need for us to post a legal statement about the content. Surely this idea doesn’t apply to us?

A. Your web site must have something on it, whether it’s a single image or a paragraph of text. The least you can do is show who the copyright owner is, otherwise the content is public domain.

Q. We are a very small company and can’t afford legal representation. Editorial have written something that reads like a legal document. Will that do?

A. If you can’t afford to pay a legal expert to look over your text for an hour or so, then you are unlikely to be able to afford a lawsuit or a court case that might occur if you have got it wrong. Take the hit and see the process as just as important as that of creating your logo or mounting an advertising campaign.

Here is an idea for you…

If you don’t have legal pages on your web site, this must be addressed immediately. Assuming that there is already a statement of some description on your site, find out when it was last updated. Does it cover your contractual agreement with users and their agreement when using your site? Is it clear who owns the copyright of the text, images and other content found on your site?

It is well worth the cost of having a legal expert read over, if not create, your statement. Pinching another web site’s statement and altering it to suit you own needs is not good enough – you’ll be caught out either by the originator or by a user finding loopholes.

Defining idea…

‘A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.’

Oscar Wilde

Defining idea…

‘The problem with any unwritten law is that you don’t know where to go to erase it.’

Glaser and Way