T&S for the website

[Macik]

Hi guys,

I am launching a review website and I am wondering if T&S that are available online for $$ are good enough or should I have someone to put it all together for me? Cost is important factor here as I wouldnt want to spend loads on this.

Are there any T&S online worth checking and are free?

Or maybe I can just grab them from a similar website and make necessary changes? Would this be illegal?

Also, at some point I would like to offer buying top positions in categories, are there any specific T&S I need to use for that?

Thanks for your help!
Maciej

 

[Aspens Marketing and PR]

It depends on the risk involved, what are you selling, what is the impact if something goes wrong, on your business? Normally having written for you contracts/terms and conditions are best but in early stage businesses legal templates can work well. PMd you with some details.

 

[RayLevy]

It is unlawful to copy and paste someone else's terms and conditions. Its a breach of copyright.

However, that doesn't stop a lot of online businesses doing it, because really there is only a small chance of being caught, and if you are caught, and you remove them when asked, you are very unlikely to have a legal claim brought against you.

Now, its not ideal (obviously) for a number of reasons. Firstly, the business you are copying may not be exactly the same as yours. Even if it is, if you're in the UK, and they're in the US, the law relating to terms and conditions is not the same this side of the Atlantic.

Next, how do you know they're terms are any good? Maybe they also ripped them off from a totally unsuitable source?

Finally, even if you get lucky enough to find an exact replica of your website, in the same country, with great terms and conditions drafted by a lawyer who knows what he's doing, you'll still need to go through them carefully to make sure there are no references to the original company, as if there are you could end up with terms which are void, because they're not stated to relate to your new company.

So bearing the above in mind, together with the likely cost if something goes wrong, it may well be worth spending the money on a proper set of Ts and Cs which you can rely on and sleep comfortably at night.

Ray