Legal Requirements of a Website
Posted on April 5, 2008 by
Rosanne Lim 
Startups, eCommerce 
7 Comments
It has been said countless times that a web owner should treat his online venture as a serious business undertaking. Being able to meet various legal requirements of setting up a website is essential in this case. Complying with internet laws and regulations is actually more simple than you think; most of the time, web owners are actually complying with the laws without even being aware of it. Basically, there are two legal aspects every web owner should meet: the business notices and the legal notices.
Business Notices:
The About Us Page – this is important to let your visitors know about you and your company. You should include your name, the name of your company, and pictures if applicable. If you have other partners in the business, you should do the same for them.
The Contact Us Page – at the very least, the contact us page should include your e-mail address. And if you have an offline office, you should include the physical establishment of your company. However, try not to disclose your home address and personal phone number on the website.
The Affiliate Program Page – if you are using affiliate programs as a marketing method, you need to include a page wherein interested affiliates can look for more information. You need to describe your affiliate program, the payment terms, and the support affiliates can expect from your company.
Legal Notices:
Copyright – basically, this is just the copyright information of your website which needs to be included on the webpage. Be sure to include the word “Copyright” and the copyright symbol.
Disclaimer – this is the extent to which visitors can use the information available on your website. It should also state that your company will not shoulder any liability that may arise from using or downloading some information from the website.
Privacy Policy – when you need to gather contact information about your consumer, you need to make a “privacy policy” stating the purpose of gathering their data and what you will do with the information you gather.
Terms of Service – visitors should be informed about who is legally allowed to visit a particular website. You need to put an age statement as well.
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Great article on this topic.. I know many corporations that try to skip these little details, but if ever they were sued, they would be wishing they followed them exactly.
Thats a nice article.
Can you suggest any legal requirements for a blog ?
Oh, i am removed from top commentators list. :(
Was I spamming the blog ?
If yes, then sorry for that.
just noticed, my comment link is replaced by dnseo link. Was my blog very bad ?
Anyway, not a problem.
Enjoyed commenting till now. :)
One other small item: if you are other than a sole proprietor (i.e. a limited liability company or corporation) be sure to include that designation on your about page and, preferably, throughout the site. Failing to do so can allow someone suing you to “pierce the corporate veil.” In other words, go after your personal assets, not simply the assets of the company.
Thanks for the tips, they are so true!
Can you please let me know where these requisites are written i.e. irs, …I’ve tried finding the sources myself with no luck.