Hello, recently I have built a website for authors (poetry, short stories, essays, etc.) to post their works to the public. Users may comment & rate these works, and even socialize with other members of the site via Messages, profile comments, etc. I am wondering if anyone could suggest what to place in my disclaimer, terms of service, and privacy policy. To create an account, members are required to enter their email address, password, and first name. Optional inputs are age, gender, location, country, 'about me', and interests. Users, whether they are a member or just a visitor, may read any work that has been submitted to the website. Would I need a detailed ToS / Disclaimer explaining that members may only submit their own, authentic works? If members do submit other users works, would it be possible for me to get into legal issues over it? Any suggestions are welcome, thanks much!
I would state something along the lines of them not holding you liable of their works are copied, if they are sued for copyright infringement. Put something in there about reserving the right to hand over all known information including IP addresses and names to Law Enforcement for legitimate LE inquiries, as well as anyone with a legal court order. Add something in there stating they are over 13 (I believe US Law requires if any personal information is maintained on someone under 13 you have to have written consent from a parent/guardian) You should be ok from getting sued by a copyright owner if someone submits their work, as long as your TOS states something along the lines of users agree any work they submit is their original creation. Best thing to do is look for sites that are related to what you want to do and go from what they have, as well as other sites such as forums that you are a member of (like this one ) to see if there is anything you want to cover in them. You could always retain a lawyer, but that may cost some decent money to get them to write a decent TOS/disclaimer. But I strongly advise you have the stuff in there that I have suggested. Others may have more suggestions. But you really need to insulate yourself as much as possible from getting caught up in the copyright thing, most hosts don't allow it so...Also something along the lines of you review everything that is submitted for copyright infringement/whatever else (say you don't want profanity or other obscene language) but its a manual process and takes time, so you can not be held liable. But I recommend you do screen the stuff if you put that.