subject: Which Are the 3 Mistakes Online Business Owners Make? [print this page] Which Are the 3 Mistakes Online Business Owners Make?
Copyright (c) 2010 Ask The Business LawyerIt does not take much at all to set up an online business. Register a new domain name, establish an account with Paypal, insert some copy in a do-it-yourself website, and you are all set. You are now an online business owner. You have done so without having to deal with lots of paperwork and no officious bureaucrats . You are gripped by a sense of unhindered freedom, and there are no rules to hold your back in your online business. Is this right? No. The wake-up call is that you have to observe the same laws in your online world as you do at your physical office. These are the three most frequently repeated errors of online business owners.1. Getting "bit" by your web development agreement. Plenty of entrepreneurs hire a web developer to build on their brilliant idea. Opening an online business without having your attorney review the web development agreement is like opening a corner caf without reviewing the lease. If the developer buys the domain name or opens the hosting account, she owns itnot you. And you've just let your business become her hostage if there's a dispute. Make sure you control those issues --otherwise, [the web developer] could shutter your business in a nanosecond.2. Whose intellectual property are you using? If you are using someone else's , be prepared for a nasty cease-and-desist letter from their lawyers when you are right in the middle of a big marketing promotion. Imagine the time wasted and costs involved in having to redo your marketing ' not a pleasant idea. Next, is your own intellectual property protected? By submitting your website to the US Copyright Office, you do so, just for a small fee of $45. By taking this step, you have every right a cease-and-desist letter when someone infringes your copyright. You may get statutory damages from between $1,000 to $10,000 if the guilty party ignores the cease-and-desist order. A pretty good return on investment.3. Not having a coherent privacy policy. Cutting and pasting is common in cyberspace, and many business owners do that for putting together their website terms. This is a bad idea. Your website terms must be relevant to your business. Failing that, you may incur legal liability for not keeping to the policy you presumably have. For example, are you adequately safeguarding customers' private information? Are you disclosing the privacy policies of any third party vendors involved in your website such those which run your shopping cart, conduct any surveys, or whose newsletters you are reproducing in your content?Lastly, look for an attorney who is an authority on online businesses, read up his or her views on the topic. Research into appropriate legal terms. If you are in real estate, do you know what are "FHA guidelines"? Do your terms include "Safe Harbor Act" if you are running a social networking site? Laws in cyberspace change quickly ' make sure you are not left behind.
