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Your T.O.S. Has Teeth (Cyber-Spouse Cheating = Jail Time...)

by TimGross
10 replies
Here's an interesting article on the implications of the MySpace suicide ruling, regarding how much legal weight website Terms Of Service carries:

MySpace ruling could lead to jail for lying online daters | Surveillance State - CNET News

Examples:

1) Anyone under age 18 using Gmail or any of Google's other products is breaking their T.O.S.

2) Match.com prohibits married people from using Match.com to cheat on their spouses

3) eHarmony.com forbids users from lying on their profile

In theory, after the MySpace suicide ruling, anyone doing the above can be classified as hackers and put in jail.

My point in mentioning this isn't about their T.O.S. though, it's a reminder to look at YOUR website terms of service...

If you're like most Internet marketers, you put up a T.O.S. page based on what you saw others doing (if you did it at all), without really considering what it means, and what it may be binding YOU to.

I remember a high-profile company during the dot-com bust who couldn't sell their customer database (which was their main asset) when they tried to sell their company, because it would have violated their own T.O.S. agreement to their users/customers. (Ouch)

What does your T.O.S. and Privacy Policy give you the right to do, and what could it possibly restrict you from doing in the future as your business grows and changes?

It's not something to take for granted.
#cheating #cyberspouse #jail #teeth #time #tos
  • Profile picture of the author Jim Pearson
    Tim;

    Great post...I have not checked my T.O.S. in a while but will later today.

    I'll post back and let you know what I found out positive or negative.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Lockwood
    Mine says you agree to pay me $1000 for each page you visit on my site. How do I go about collecting that?
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    • Profile picture of the author Michael Mayo
      Tim,

      Thanks for the info!
      Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood View Post

      Mine says you agree to pay me $1000 for each page you visit on my site. How do I go about collecting that?
      Chris, Now your in trouble because you stole that from my TOS.

      Are there any good lawyers in the house?

      Have a Great Day!
      Michael
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris Lockwood
    OK, I'll bump it to $5000 so it won't conflict.

    Seriously, I think most of this is much ado about nothing. That case only went to trial because somebody died. Does anyone really think a 16-year-old is going to be jailed for doing a Google search?
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    • Profile picture of the author TimGross
      Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood View Post

      I think most of this is much ado about nothing. That case only went to trial because somebody died. Does anyone really think a 16-year-old is going to be jailed for doing a Google search?
      I think you're missing the point... Those examples were only listed to highlight the fact that T.O.S. matter. Those examples highlight theoretical risks for end-users, but as business owners there's always the potential for frivolous lawsuits that a proper T.O.S. can help derail.

      1) Does your T.O.S. say you promise to never sell, rent or trade your subscriber list under any circumstance? What happens when you decide to sell that domain with it's subscriber list in a couple of years?

      2) Do you ask people to enter their email address into a form before they can download or access something without explicitly stating in your T.O.S. that by entering their email address that they're being added to your newsletter and will receive recommendations and promotions from time to time?

      3) Do you offer any type of software download without having a specific disclaimer that absolves you of all responsibility if it causes a problem with their computer? If not and their hard drive happens to fails the day after they install your software, you may have a problem.

      4) Do you provide any hosting or ecommerce-related scripts that could possibly fail or cause down-time without stating that you're not responsible for any loss of income due to a problem?

      5) Do you link to any outside resources/websites/products without mentioning in your T.O.S. that you bear no responsibility for the companies you're linking to?

      You've got to remember:

      -Some people try to make a living filing frivolous lawsuits

      -Others are confused and direct their anger at the wrong thing

      I've had people contact me demanding a refund for a competitor's product that I had no relationship with (never promoted, never linked to, etc), and even after I proved that they were asking the wrong company for the refund, still didn't believe me.

      You can't control what lunatics stumble on to your website, you can only try to protect yourself from whatever bizarre things they may do.
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      • Profile picture of the author Chris Lockwood
        Originally Posted by TimGross View Post

        I think you're missing the point... Those examples were only listed to highlight the fact that T.O.S. matter. Those examples highlight theoretical risks for end-users, but as business owners there's always the potential for frivolous lawsuits that a proper T.O.S. can help derail.
        No, I think you're missing the point that the TOS means nothing unless legal action is taken.

        That's why I used the example of $1000 per page viewed. Does anyone think that could be enforced?
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        • Profile picture of the author TimGross
          Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood View Post

          the TOS means nothing unless legal action is taken.
          That's correct. You're focusing on site owners taking legal action against their users/customers. I'm talking about the importance of the site owner's T.O.S. to protect themselves against (possibly frivolous) lawsuits from their users/customers. If and when that happens, the wording of your T.O.S. and what is and is not included in it become very important.
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        • Profile picture of the author Johnny Slater
          Chris, what he is saying is in the case of legal action what protection does your TOS actually give you, and what is it limiting you to.

          I personally had a situation where someone "threatened" to file legal action because my sales page mentioned a CMS within Simple Member Pro. The only mention of it is on a feature comparison chart where I compare SMP to other scripts. This person was saying that by not expressly saying where the CMS could be use that it was implied that it could be used anywhere in the script.

          I have said it before, you can't predict what your customers or site viewers will think or do so you have to take every precaution to protect yourself.

          And btw.... if you have enough money to string things out in court pretty much anything is enforcable. The only real limits are your ability to hire a good lawyer who knows how to work the system.

          Originally Posted by Chris Lockwood View Post

          No, I think you're missing the point that the TOS means nothing unless legal action is taken.

          That's why I used the example of $1000 per page viewed. Does anyone think that could be enforced?
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          • Profile picture of the author Kay King
            In the end it's not as much about what you can enforce perhaps as what you need to protect yourself from (and Chris I only viewed 1.5 pages but you'll have to catch me to collect).

            The list Tim gives has one thing in common - those terms are meant to provide protection against charges that might be made against the sites - such as by the parent of an underage person, claiming damages in a divorce action, a really, really bad date, etc.

            Unlike the blogger, I was pleased with the Lori Drew conviction as it upheld the TOS. To accept her defense that "no one reads TOS so they don't matter" would really throw a wrench into the process.

            kay
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            • Profile picture of the author Killer Joe
              Tim,

              Thanks for posting this. It's timely for me as I am reworking the TOS on one of my websites that sells physical products. Specifically, refunds on purchases sent across the border to Canada from the US. Eating that extra postage on refunds will now be addressed.

              I think it's important to remember that as new situations crop up, amending your TOS to include situations that were not appearent earlier on can address issues in advance of disputes. In effect, your TOS is a living document and needs to be treated as such.

              Anyway, it was nice to read an intellegent post after scanning a few of those "I'll Make Millions With Mental Masturbation" posts that have been floating around these days.

              KJ
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