Click Here to Accept and Lose All Rights

Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn are becoming a growing way to market not only yourself, but also your business. Further, people now spend more time on these social networking sites than they do writing e-mails. Recently, there was a large outcry over Facebook changing its Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) for using the site. So just what caused the outrage, what are you giving up when using these sites, and what can you do to properly tailor your business’ T&Cs?
When you start to use one of these Social Networking sites, even before you enter your personal information, you must accept that site’s T&Cs. Almost no one ever reads the fine print of these T&Cs (if they read them at all) and, even if they did, many are written in such a way that a layperson could not possibly understand everything they were agreeing to. However, these T&Cs are legally binding contracts you agree to, listing your rights, responsibilities, and the rules or conditions of service.
The outcry involving Facebook occurred not only because the user’s acceptance was given upon the continued use of the site, but because Facebook took a particularly broad license that gave it rights over users' content. This license closely matched users' rights as owners, in addition to content belonging to third parties.
The license that you granted to Facebook was very broad. It covered not only your content on Facebook, but also content you may have linked to from outside of Facebook. This includes photos you may have stored on Flickr or Snapfish, videos from Vimeo, and more. This made Facebook’s new T&Cs particularly invasive. Due to negative press and user scorn, Facebook quickly went back to their old T&Cs.
Most employers today only use Facebook to scout out potential hires. However, a large number of businesses and business people use LinkedIn. LinkedIn works to expand your network among others in your field and geographic area. Unfortunately, LinkedIn’s T&Cs are more overreaching than anything Facebook has tried.
LinkedIn’s T&C language is too wordy to reprint here in full. In sum, it grants a license to LinkedIn that is equivalent to the rights enjoyed by the owner of the original work. This includes the ability to create derivative works and “in any way commercialize” the original work. If you value anything you have created, be it a blog post, a picture, or a business presentation, think twice about putting it on LinkedIn. You are subject to these T&Cs through ANY use of the website, not just upon clicking “accept.”
As you can see, it pays to read through the T&Cs of various websites rather than just clicking “accept.” However, it is not just social networking sites that require T&Cs. If your business provides pricing information, advice, or almost any other service, you should consider adding a T&C page. Also, it is not as easy as going online and copying Facebook’s T&Cs. First, that is a copyright violation. Second, unless your businesses are identical in every single way, it is doubtful that another company’s T&Cs would fully protect your business.
By having clear and concise T&Cs, it will be evident to both parties what's been agreed to, and will cover the process and remedies if things ever go wrong. An attorney should write these T&Cs; however, if as a business owner you are looking to save during this economy, take the following measures.
First, consider what you need to include on your terms and conditions page. These include issues and concerns, potential problems, and your website’s purpose and limitations. Second, look at the T&Cs pages of websites that are in the same industry as yours. Again, do not copy these directly as it is a violation of copyright law and you most likely will not be completely covered.
Third, after collecting as much information as possible, attempt to express your T&Cs in a clear and concise manner. Remember the T&C is a legal document binding on both parties. The T&Cs should state exactly what your site is about, what service it provides and how it provides that service. Also, be sure to address all legal concerns you might have, and fully explain those liabilities you do and do not accept. Finally, even if you elect to draft the T&Cs, have an attorney carefully review them. If issues arise that are not included in your T&Cs, update them, and be sure to let your customers or users know that updates have been made. An attorney will know the applicable law and be able to guide you if you are attempting to reserve too many rights or if you are giving some away unnecessarily. Further, should the law change, an attorney that drafted or reviewed the T&Cs will be able to alert you to these changes and how they may affect you.