Protect what is rightfully yours and protect yourself against being sued.
It’s as easy as including information, or links to further information, in your site footer.
Copyright
Copyright is all about staking a claim on your intellectual property - that is the information you create and publish to your site.
You can choose to make the information published on your site usable by everybody for free.- You can declare this by simply saying so, using a Creative Commons / gnu attribution licence or any number of options.
- You may insist that use of your material requires permission before use or simply request that a link to your site is sufficient.
You can state precisely what a user of your material is required to do to use your material and if they don’t like it, then they don’t have to use it.
You have the right to control where your content appears, how it is used and who uses it.
In this case you will want to copyright it with the standard © in your footer (check mine out) – for example:
Copyright © Site Name – All Rights Reserved
Privacy Policy
I’ve written about this before but basically if you are collecting information you have to say how it is used.
For example, if you are collecting email addresses or you use Google AdSense then you need to have a privacy policy.
With respect to Google AdSense, you’re not allowed to use it on your site unless you have a privacy policy and it needs to meet their standards.
You’ll see in the footer of this site a link to Privacy Policy. If you would like to get one for your site for free and would like to read more about why you need to have one, read my article Free Privacy Policy & Disclaimer For Your Site. This will also help protect yourself against being sued.
- You can also check out the Privacy Policy & Disclaimer we use via the link in our footer.
Affiliate or Earnings Disclosure
Just like a link to your privacy policy, you also need a page that contains an ‘affiliate disclosure’ or ‘earnings disclosure’, perhaps even just a ‘disclosure‘. It is your call how you want to name your link and page, but be aware that this is another way to protect yourself against being sued.
Different countries have different laws and compliance is also monitored and enforced differently.
In Australia we have various laws including the Trade Practices Act that provides guidelines and strict obligations by businesses. If you break the law the consequences can be very severe.
The Internet is causing many domestic laws to be recognised internationally. For example, if a US-based blogger defames an Australian-based blogger (or their site), they might find themselves on a plane for 17 hours and paying for a lawyer who can defend them across the globe.
America’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has recently released revised Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising effective 1 December 2009.
The guides have been around since the 1980s but they have been toughened to protect consumers online. Recent changes mean that bloggers have to disclose relationships they have with products, services and organisations that provide a benefit to the endorser in the form of free products or revenue including affiliate income for marketing those products and services.
- The guidelines help to ensure that consumers can identify affiliations and relationships between those who provide endorsements and testimonials and the products and services recommended via positive comments so that they can consider the comments and opinions in their true light - and then assign adequate weights to such claims.
- American bloggers must be mindful and perhaps even fearful of what these guidelines mean for them – especially if you don’t follow the guidelines!
- Other bloggers around the world should also consider the ramifications for them now and into the future and likely adoption by other countries.
- The quest to make the Internet a safer place is on the international agenda for developed countries and even some developing countries thanks to unlawful activities perpetrated via the Internet.
So, if you are a blogger, and particularly if you operate a website that targets US residents, then you should consider adopting these guidelines as best practice.
Experts, Endorsements and Testimonials
The Federal Trade Commission defines the terms experts, endorsements and testimonials and refers to them in their Guides:
- Endorsements and testimonials are generally treated the same.
- An expert is an individual, group, or institution possessing, as a result of experience, study, or training, knowledge of a particular subject, which knowledge is superior to what ordinary individuals generally acquire.
Endorsements must reflect the honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experience of the endorser. Furthermore, an endorsement may not convey any express or implied representation that would be deceptive if made directly by the advertiser.
Bloggers and Affiliate Marketers Beware
A scenario to explain the guidelines…keeping in mind that this post is not writen by a lawyer, only another blogger who has interpreted the examples provided by the FTC site and who is sharing them with bloggers in an attempt to help others become aware of their obligations…
A blogger who uses the free WordPress.com platform who then changes to the paid version, buys a premium theme and then notices their traffic goes through the roof can offer their opinion and say how great WordPress and the premium theme is. This would not generally be considered an endorsement under the Guides.
However, a blogger is considered to be providing an endorsement as soon as they enrol in that premium theme’s affiliate marketing program and receive periodical products or payments or other benefits they would not usually received as a result of writing positively about the theme [product]. Under these circumstances, the Guides say a blogger must disclose their relationship.
- If you are a blogger who recommends a product or service by publishing an article and a link (text link or image link) to a site that provides you with incentives such as affiliate income, free products or reciprocal advertising – then your article materially affects a consumer’s decision making and your endorsements should therefore be clearly and conspicuously disclosed.
I don’t always earn money from products and services I blog about, but I am a member of a few affiliate programs, most notably the DIY Themes affiliate program, where I receive affiliate income on occasion for the subsequent sales of Thesis Theme.
Advertisers have an even greater responsibility to make sure these disclosures are present and to check that any testimonials and endorsements used by them have not dramatically change and/or whether the product or service is in fact still being endorsed by the original endorser. Advertisers may even have to remove an endorsement from their advertising.
How do bloggers follow the Endorsement Guides?
Is the FTC planning to sue bloggers?
Example Affiliate Disclaimer
Read the Affiliate Disclaimer for Thesis Theme HQ – linked to in the footer.
It is by no means the best it could be as it was not prepared by a lawyer. It was prepared by a blogger (me) after reading the FTC site. I am of the belief that I have substantially complied with the FTC Guide, even though I am not an American blogger.
You can use any of the words but make sure you tailor your disclaimer to your own unique circumstances and seek legal advice as necessary.
In Summary
- Copyright your material the way you want
- Add a privacy statement to your site
- Add a disclaimer to your site
- Add an affiliate or earnings disclosure statement to your site
… to protect your material and defend against the lawyers.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I think this post was written well and could help many users out there to protect themselves in case they are attacked by the FTC. Rather be safe than sorry.
George Serradinho´s last blog ..Report User Searches on your site using the Search Meter WordPress Plugin
Great Post, I would like to exchange links with you, here is my Blog
Mark Stoler´s last blog ..5 Proven Methods to Building Traffic
nice post, Can you tell me or can you suggest me where can I buy/exchange Links.
Ca Foreclosure´s last blog ..Los Angeles Ca Homes – Los Angeles Ca Foreclosures- Los Angeles Homes- Los Angeles Foreclosures
I would be careful buying links – beware the Google slap. On the other hand, your link in an article is worth more usually anyway. I would Google directory+your keywords+submit to find places you can submit your link for free to the relevant target market.
@ Someone Bull….
Thanks You very much… you gave an informative message…… Keep posting updates.
Copyright info is vital, also privacy, as Google indicates in their webmaster policies.
Great information provided in the article…really really helpful for the site and users..
I find a bit amazing how many companies, and sites, ignore the real legal importance of a proper privacy and disclosure form in their sites.
As a blogger or a site owner, you really need to protect your right against piracy. Many people are actually duplicating others’ content over the internet so you can’t actually trust anybody.
Fortunately Google recognises the original source (the site where the content is first published) and those shonky sites who steal other people’s content can get banned from Google search results. Being banned from Google is usually permanent.
Content is number 1 most important factor that every site owner must consider. Otherwise, no one will take time to at least visit your site. In this case, you really need to protect your site from any copyrights violation done by other people.
security camera system´s last blog ..Education at home: More important than a complete and expensive home security system
Copyright issue has always been a big problem to other people working through internet. Most of the time, ideas are stolen from their sites without them even knowing it.
Carrie´s last blog ..Best Contact Lenses