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What is the minimum business stuff like acceptable use policies etc. that I will need to launch a product?

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Re: What is the minimum business stuff like acceptable use policies etc. that I will need to launch a product?

#11

Post by Readmore »

dawie wrote: post #4
Readmore wrote: post #3

I suppose it depends on your product really, if you're storing credit card numbers you'll need to think about what you are responsible for legally, which can change from state to state. That being said, if you're doing some kind of social app I wouldn't be too worried about the legal stuff. I would write up something that tells the user you're going to do your best to keep their data safe and available but you can't…

Its a pretty simple site thats not even going to ask for payments right away. We will implement that in 30 days time...

I wouldn't worry about it. When you do take payments use Paypal and let them deal with it ;)

Re: What is the minimum business stuff like acceptable use policies etc. that I will need to launch a product?

#12

Post by jcwentz »

brlewis wrote: post #7
dawie wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its a pretty simple site thats not even going to ask for payments right away. We will implement that in 30 days time...

When you accept money you're establishing a contract, so you'll want to limit liability to just getting their money back. You'll want to establish what courts might be used for dispute resolution. You'll need to be explicit about any behaviors that would result in you terminating their service without refunding their money. Your users agree to certain obligations as part of the contract; you should too. Make privacy…

Sounds like a bad plan to make privacy a contractual obligation, because then you're undertaking a legal obligation not to have your server hacked. No one who understands servers would do that.

Re: What is the minimum business stuff like acceptable use policies etc. that I will need to launch a product?

#13

Post by python_kiss »

dawie wrote: post #6
danielha wrote: post #5

A terms of use and a privacy clause should be sufficient.

Any idea where I can get these? Free ones that is.

Copy paste. Nobody is going to sue you unless you get big. When you get some money flowing in, hire a lawyer.

Re: What is the minimum business stuff like acceptable use policies etc. that I will need to launch a product?

#15

Post by ph0rque »

dawie wrote: post #6
danielha wrote: post #5

A terms of use and a privacy clause should be sufficient.

Any idea where I can get these? Free ones that is.

Our start-up (i-conserve.com) looked around on the web, saw that most were partial copies of each other (as in, whole paragraphs verbatim), and decided to write our own, based on 4 or 5 we liked. We really liked the bare-bones approach most YC companies have, and tried to follow that philosophy when writing such legal documents.

Then we talked about to a local long-time entrepreneur, who said that is exactly what his lawyer did, and charged him thousands for it; in fact, it didn't turn out that great. So, save some money and write them yourself.

Re: What is the minimum business stuff like acceptable use policies etc. that I will need to launch a product?

#17

Post by staunch »

This is the kind of thing that you should probably not spend any time on. Risk is the name of the game and this is one of the smallest.

It might even be riskier post copy/paste legal documents. Because you're not a lawyer you don't know what ramifications it could have on any future litigation.

Re: What is the minimum business stuff like acceptable use policies etc. that I will need to launch a product?

#18

Post by brlewis »

jcwentz wrote: post #12
brlewis wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you accept money you're establishing a contract, so you'll want to limit liability to just getting their money back. You'll want to establish what courts might be used for dispute resolution. You'll need to be explicit about any behaviors that would result in you terminating their service without refunding their money. Your users agree to certain obligations as part of the contract; you should too. Make privacy…

Sounds like a bad plan to make privacy a contractual obligation, because then you're undertaking a legal obligation not to have your server hacked. No one who understands servers would do that.

ourdoings.com "Agrees not to use or disclose your personal information, or the personal information of others who use your site, without permission for any purpose other than providing and improving this service, except as required by law."

If someone breaks into the datacenter and physically steals the server (a more realistic scenario than the server being hacked) I don't think that would count as "disclosing". But I'm in Massachusetts where courts seem to have a higher-than-average degree of common sense.

Re: What is the minimum business stuff like acceptable use policies etc. that I will need to launch a product?

#19

Post by aran »

In Canada at least, legal notices are not themselves protected. The same is probably true in the US. You can copy them, but obviously someone else's policy might not be what you want.

(IANAL, I could be wrong and often am, this is not legal advice, etc. etc.)

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