Author Archives: Andrew Jaffe

Your E-Commerce web site, App or Blog will need legal policies. I suggest you do not attempt to write your own legal policies. This is not where your training and background lie, and you do not have the training and experience that a lawyer has that can keep your liability to a minimum.

1. Business Model
Is your idea viable as a web based business? Do you have a business model written out?

2. Business entity
Are you going to be a C corp, a sub-S, an LLC or a sole proprietorship? There are liability and tax issues that can dramatically affect how your business prospers and selecting the proper entity is a critical first step.

3. Terms of Service
This is your contract with your visitors and is the most important item for any App or e-commerce site. A little work here brings big dividends in the future. The absence of a written “Terms of Service” can expose your business and possibly you to both criminal and civil liability.

4. Privacy Policy
Every Blog, App or e-commerce site needs a Privacy Policy! Operating an App or e-commerce site without a Privacy Policy exposes you to civil and criminal liability. Further, the absence of a Privacy Policy will cause a red flag for many legitimate visitors who will not deal a web site not professional enough to have a Privacy Policy.

5. FTC guidelines
The FTC has been regulating business advertising for almost a century. All of their advertising guidelines apply to an App or e-commerce sites. The FTC negotiates with established e-commerce businesses but new ones are frequently sanctioned with fines, etc. and don’t forget about SPAM issues with your email account.

6. Domain Name issues
Is your name available? Can you create a Trademark? People are often confused by the difference between a domain name and a trademark. While they are separate identities, there is often considerable overlap. Domain names, trademarks and service marks can become valuable assets but the failure to properly protect them may deprive you of much of their value.

7. Trademark
Do you have a brand name free from conflict? Should you start with just common law rights? When Should you register the mark?

8. Copyright
If it is on the web, it already belongs to somebody. Did you buy a license for the images you are using? Using copyrighted materials without proper licensing is not only expensive but under some conditions criminal.

9. The DMCA Policy
This is a very inexpensive “insurance policy” which gives you a “safe harbor” from liability if your visitors post copyright material on your web site.

10. Web Site security Issues
Ask Target, Anthem Insurance etc. if this is an issue. Encryption is a simple way to ensure you never have a data breach.

11. The Difference Between a “browser wrap” and a “click wrap”
Using a click wrap, where the visitor actuals clicks a button agreeing with the TOS will greatly decrease your liability

Getting Started
Feel free to call me for a NO CHARGE initial consultation about your needs.

Over the past few years a host of web sites known as “Revenge Porn” have cropped up where the ex-partner of a woman could post nude pictures of their ex with personal details including their name, age, address, and links to their social network sites. These sites would then charge the pictured women a fee from $300 to $500 to have their pictures removed from the site. These sites became a form of “free speech” blackmail” if you will.

Last year California enacted the country’s first revenge porn law, making it a crime to post a naked picture of a woman without her consent and with intent to cause emotional harm. Since the passage of the law in California, a dozen states have followed suit to outlaw this cruel and childish behavior by ex boyfriends.

Yesterday in California, a San Diego man, 28-year-old Kevin Bollaert, was the first person convicted in the state for running a revenge porn site, although he was actually convicted under Extortion and ID theft laws. Convicted on 27 felony counts, he could face fines up to $27,000 and face prison when he comes up for sentencing.

Bollaert ran the web site “yougotposted.com” along with two sites where you could go to have the pictures removed for $350.

In other Revenge Porn news, last week the FTC came to a settlement with a Colorado man, Craig Brittain of Colorado Springs to cease running similar web sites, “isanybodydown.com.” Again, the man ran “reputation cleaning” sites charging $200 to $500 to have the pictures removed from his site.

In more Revenge Porn news, the law firm of K&L Gates has set up cyber civil rights division where their lawyers can volunteer to help victims of revenge porn sue the poster of their pictures. Using copyright and defamation laws, as well as revenge porn laws, the lawyers go after the men who are abusing these women.

I applaud K&L Gates for being in the forefront of trying to stop this online activity. Revenge porn is not a funny way to get back at an ex, but rather a sleazy insult to their privacy rights that can harm and follow a victim of this act for years.

Finally, I hope these convictions and other pending law suits will convince operators of these types of sites that it is a business model guaranteed to cost them tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees as well as criminal chargers. Once the operators of these sites see what these men have gone through, I bet the many other sites offering the same kinds of revenge will shut them down before they too are charged with similar crimes.