Are you exposed? Chances
are if you run a web site or sell products or services online, you
are open to all sorts of liabilities you never dreamed of. It's only
a matter of time before some trouble maker comes along and tries to
rip you off. Here's some examples:
EXAMPLE #1:
One of my sites is a
product review site called Cool
Tool Awards. I review "cool" software tools
ranging from graphics to web design to business. I try to be fair in
my reviews and spend a great deal of time evaluating products. Not
every tool submitted gets reviewed; I am very selective.
Occasionally visitors read my reviews and buy a product I recommend.
Even though I didn't sell it to them or make the product, I
sometimes get email from disgruntled buyers. They threaten me with
all sorts of legal actions ranging from misrepresentation to false
advertising. You name it. Some people simply want a fight, and they
insist on me removing a review from my site. Again, the threats
come. I've actually received a letter from a lawyer who so hated a
product I reviewed and recommended that he threatened to serve me
and shut my site down unless I removed the review. I didn't want to
do it, but I did.
EXAMPLE #2:
Another one of my sites,
EbookoMatic,
provides authors with a turnkey solution to publishing, promoting,
distributing, and selling ebooks. I can not guarantee anyone will
sell an ebook; if I could I would make millions. I provide a
value-added service that can not be found anywhere else on the
Internet. Still, some authors have an unrealistic expectation of
publishing their ebook and making a million dollars overnight. They
ask for a refund, and because it's good customer service to do so, I
refund their money. But some folks won't stop there. No, they want
me to change the wording of my site because they insist it is
misleading. They threaten me with lawsuits because I will not
publish pornographic literature. They say I am interfering with
their God given rights and civil liberties. They threaten me with
more law suits.
EXAMPLE #3:
A guy contacts me two
weeks ago and offers to sell me two domain names that sound
remarkably like one of mine. It so happens I own the trademark on
the domain. Paid good money for it. And I have many years and
dollars invested in developing my brand. So this guy thinks he is
going to bribe me into buying these domains for several hundred
dollars or he will sell it to another person. He calls it a deal. I
call it extortion. After about 6 hours of back and forth email, and
calls to two lawyers, the guy ceases and desists and shuts down the
domains in question.
My life is the Internet. I spend a great deal of time and money
building new products and developing new services in an effort to
make a buck. I think I do a pretty good job (over 5000 subscribers
say so!), but there are people out there whose sole purpose in life
is to make trouble. What about you? Have you bumped into one of
these folks yet? Sooner or later you will, and you better be
prepared when it happens. Because if you are not careful, you can
lose everything you have worked so hard for: your site, your
revenue, and your future.
Luckily, something new has come along which I think is going to make
it tougher for the average troublemaker to make trouble. The product
is called AutoWebLaw
Pro. This is a nifty set of legal templates for virtually
every occasion. You fill them in and out pops a perfectly legal
document covering the most important things a webmaster or web
marketer needs to do
business:
And there's tons more.
These documents were prepared by real lawyers who live and breathe
Internet law. You can't readily find this stuff on Quicken Lawyer at
Best Buy or Circuit City.
If you do business on
the Net, you need to cover your bases now, or sooner or later Fast
Buck Freddy will come along and try to shut you down or rob you
blind. Hey, it's your choice. But me? I'd rather be safe than sorry,
so I bought AutoWebLaw
Pro right away . . . and I'll implement all of these legal
protection tools. My advice? Do yourself a favor and at least visit
the site to read about some of the horror stories. An ounce of
prevention . . . click here.
