The age of your users impacts the website. According to Federal Trade Commission regulations

through the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a website must get a parent's

permission for children under 13 to disclose information. Also, remember that children under 18 should

not be permitted to view information which is adult in nature. In addition, children under 18 may not be

able to agree to contracts such as your website user agreement and purchase contracts. Finally, FTC

also regulates advertising and other content directed at children.

Any posting ability by users should be subject to site submission rules and a user agreement. The rules

should obtain users' consent not to post pornographic, defamatory or infringing materials and, through

your user agreement, consent to your company not being liable for other users taking such actions.

The footer of your site should display a copyright notice for the content of the site. The notice should

read "© [date] [copyright owner name] All rights reserved. You should also deposit a copy of the site

with the Copyright Office to record ownership of the site's content, and look and feel. Finally, under

the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, depending on the purpose and the users' activities on the site,

your company may be eligible to register for limited liability offered by the Act for the site. You should

consult your attorney for review of the Act and how to register.

When building your website, domain names are an important part. Often they are directly tied to your

business name, your logos and your brand. Businesses often fail to give proper thought to which

domain name to choose.

Picking a domain name should have the same careful thought as naming other products or services.

Choosing a domain name should include analysis of trademark law in relationship to the name. Under

current law, domain names may be awarded to trademark holders over others through arbitration or

litigation. This means that that having trademark registration in the same name as your domain name

may ensure that you retain ownership of the name.

If persons from other countries use your site, then your are exporting. If you sell to such persons, you

are exporting the item you sell and entering into contracts with persons of other countries. If you use

encryption on the site, then you are exporting technology regulated by the Department of Commerce

and Defense. Various government departments regulate the countries with which US companies may

do business and when a company needs an export license to transmit items, technology or information

abroad. Doing business with certain countries, such as Iraq, Iran, Cuba, North Korea, Syria,

Yugoslavia and others, is severely restricted. Depending on the information on your site, what kind of

business you do, the technology and information involved, your site may be subject to these regulations

and you should consult with your attorney about these business decisions.

It is important to be careful how your website frames to other sites. There have been trademark cases

regarding consumer confusion over which site is which, and which site is the source of the content and

data. Also, be careful because some sites' "terms and conditions" and/or "user agreements" prohibit

collecting and reprinting data displayed on the site – even if such data is factual, such as times and

places for events.

Sweepstakes, contests, lotteries and giveaways are governed by state and national laws as to how they

must be conducted. Florida and New York require registration with the state if the prizes are over

$5000 in value. Most important, you should have rules outlining the terms and conditions of the

giveaway. The rules are an offer from the sponsor which the entrant accepts by entering. The offer,

plus the acceptance, make a binding contract covering the giveaway.

On the footer of the home page of the site, you should have a link to your privacy policy, your user

agreement or terms and conditions, and your copyright notice.

Be sure that your business insurance covers website activities. Often website activities are excluded

from errors and omissions and other business insurance. Lloyds of London and a few other companies

have insurance specifically covering materials and sales via websites, including security of credit card

numbers and other important data.

One of the primary reasons for having a User Agreement is to better address the issues of jurisdiction.

Under current law, website owners may be subject to jurisdiction and law in any state or country where

its users are located. Being subject to the law of so many different locations makes trying to comply

with the law and trying to assess your risk tricky. An attorney can help you consider which markets are

your highest risk and how to lower your risks through consultation with local counsel or blocking users

from those regions. Additionally, you should consider that many foreign jurisdictions do not offer

protections for intellectual property which are comparable to the US. Therefore, if a user in such a

region steals content or software from your site, you may have little recourse by law, and a hard battle

to fight on foreign soil and in a foreign language.

A mean and horrible, horrible joke which Shakespeare penned in Henry VI and I hear far too often,

although never in reference to me.

When linking to other sites, you should consider two factors. One is what word or image you are using

for the link and whether it is a trademark of another site or company. If so, you need the trade mark

owner’s permission to post the company’s trademark on your site. Second, you should always link to

the home page of a web site since there have been "deep linking" cases claiming loss of advertising

revenue which would have been gained if the users had been directed through the home page.

Courts have not permitted use of another company’s trade marks as metatags on competitors sites.

These cases arose when company A used company B’s trademarked term in the metatagging of

company A’s site so that when a user looked for company B, company A would come up in the listing.

For example, it would not be permitted for Coke to use the metatag "Pepsi" on the Coke website.

Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, there are required procedures for someone to notify a

website that materials on the site may infringe that person’s copyright. If the Digital Millenium Copyright

Act applies, these procedures should be outlined in a notification policy on the site.

Materials which are considered "obscene" by state or federal law are not permitted on the internet and,

especially, may not be viewed by children. What is obscene is based on the local standards of the

viewing community. This makes prior determinations of what is acceptable somewhat complex. If you

have questions about your site and its content, you should review them with your attorney.

If you collect any information from users of your site, using cookies or otherwise, the Federal Trade

Commission requires you to have a privacy policy. The privacy policy should contain explanation of

how you collect the users’ information, how and where the information is stored, how the user can

delete or change the information, and to whom the information is disclosed and for what purpose. The

European Union also has similar and strict regulations on collection of information via websites.

The FTC and some states have guidelines for selling items by mail which have been extended to cover

internet sales. These guidelines cover return policies, customer contact and other information about how

to inform your customers about your products, shipping and sales procedures.

The Securities and Exchange Commission considers a website a means of disclosing information to the

public about a company. Therefore any information disclosed on your website should be given the

same review and consideration that your company gives all public disclosures with regard to "forward

looking statements" and "material" information.

Trade marking the name of your company, logo, mottos and domain name is an important part of your

business development and should be reflected on your website. Your nationally registered marks

Having a user agreement or "terms and conditions" may be the most important part of a website. A

user agreement requires each user to agree to be bound by a contract governing his or her use of the

site by clicking "I agree" before being permitted to use the site. Be aware that simply posting your legal

agreement without forcing the user to click "I agree" prior to use is unlikely to bind your users to the

terms. The user must take an active step through which she agrees to the terms and must not be allowed

to proceed to use the site without such step.

A user agreement allows a company to:

a) dictate how the site may be used (for example, for reading and printing materials),

b) dictate how the site may not be used (for example, reverse engineering the coding tricks,

copying content, for illegal purposes),

c) dictate who may use the site (for example, persons over 18, US citizens)

d) dictate procedures or policies for the site (for example, return policies, complaint policies,

notification of copyright infringement policies)

e) dictate your company’s waiver of implied legal warranties (for example implied warranties

of non-infringement, fitness for a particular purposes, etc.)

f) dictate the limit of your company’s liability for the site, other users postings on your site,

sites you link to, etc.

g) dictate jurisdiction for any disputes about relating to the site

The ability for users to view the source code of nearly all websites by using the

"view source" command in browsers means that the source code for your website is not a protectable

by trade secret law. For something to be protected by trade secret law, it must not be publicly known,

the owner must take some effort to keep the information secret, and the information must have monetary

value to the owner. If the information is publicly available on the web through "view source", the

information is not a trade secret.

Statements on your website about your products and services are express warranties to customers. It is

important to carefully review all website text to be sure that what your company promises is true and

corresponds with its other policies and advertising.

When you review, look for statements that are absolute statements which may be hard to prove or

verify if the Federal Trade Commission were to request that you do so. Examples of such statements

are: "Our printer works with all software.", "Our services are the best.", "We guarantee that our

product will always perform perfectly." Also, be aware that the FTC has specific guidelines that should

be followed for use of the words "free" and "guarantee" in advertising or on your website.

Also review your website to be sure that the text matches your regular business contracts. For

example, your website should not promise a sixty-day money back guarantee if your contract states

only a thirty day warranty.

If your site contains adult materials, be sure to consult your attorney regarding special legal requirements

regarding notice prior to entering the site, notice requirements under federal regulations and other laws

applicable to the adult entertainment industry.

The law is all about risk. The more you time and money you spend following laws and regulations

governing your business, the lower your risks of fines or successful claims by government or third

parties.

The amount your company may have left after ignoring all the laws, regulations and risks.