Terms of Service

You use the word ‘forum’ – do you mean blog ?

And you can add any such words to the screen.

I used the word ‘forum’ as a generic term, since it may apply to more than just blog postings, but if this makes things too confusing, stay with the blog for the moment.

Of course I can add anything I like to any open source software, but I wonder if I’m the first one to come up with the idea that registration is related to terms of service. I think it would make sense if not everybody does this same work from scratch. Therefore I’m asking if anybody has already ideas about that.

It’s basically your responsibility. There are various sites where you can find this sort of thing for tweaking to your particular situation.

The “I accept” check-box doesn’t really have any legal weight over the idea of “de-facto” consent or agreement. Basically, simply having a “terms of use/service” link at the bottom of a page and stating in that document that making any use of the said site, services and/or resources constitutes acceptance of and agreement to those stated terms and is just as effective as any type of check-box. Many websites do use this “by using it, you agree to it” type of agreement to policies and common sense would tell me if someone is determined to violate terms of service or anything like that, a check-box is going to have no impact on whether they break the rules or not.

I’d suggest that the most prudent measure would be to simply have some text under the form saying: “By registering or using this you, you agree to all terms of use.” Just link “terms of use” to the document and your in business. For me, if I see a site that is not financial, legal or similarly related going a little bit further in obtaining my agreement to terms, I would tend to be more sceptical that something might be shadowy in this agreement.

Just my opinion, are there reasons you think you should have a “stronger” acceptance method to these terms?

Cheers,
Michael.

There are various sites where you can find this sort of thing

Can you point me to one of these sites where I can find such material under a free license like e.g. FDL?

The “I accept” check-box doesn’t really have any legal weight over the idea of “de-facto” consent or agreement. Basically, simply having a “terms of use/service” link at the bottom of a page and stating in that document that making any use of the said site, services and/or resources constitutes acceptance …

This sounds logical to me.

are there reasons you think you should have a “stronger” acceptance method to these terms?

No there aren’t. Thank you for this hint that saves me some work.

Christian

This one’s got tons of forms you can look over and download for 15 days free:

https://www.xdrive.com/partners/?p=pfforms&gcid=C10757x017

Christian,

If you talking about releasing code or software (I’m just guessing this may be the case from the link the FDL license), I would just follow the example that comes with any WordPress plug-in or WordPress itself. Most have a commented section of code indicating the license it’s released under, any conditions of use and terms of licensing a derivative work and simply stating that making use of the software indicates the acceptance of and agreement to the aforementioned licensing terms. Actually, following your own link to FDL is your best bet for more information on that.

If you’re talking about this in the context of a website, graphics or writings, then I don’t know how anything more than a simple copyright would be applicable. Keep in mind that I am Canadian, so intellectual property issues here seem much more logical and simplistic (generally speaking) than they are in other places. Creative Commons is an excellent resource for information and resources for licensing liberal arts type content.

If your going to be offering any type of services through your site, just make sure a link is readily available to the terms of use, indicate that registering, using or viewing any content, resources etc indicates ones acceptance of the terms of use and the only recourse to withdraw that consent or if they do not agree with the terms is to not use the service, basically “If you use it, you accept it [the terms TOS], if you don’t accept it, don’t use it??. Give these rather well-written (and understandable) terms of use for the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) or just look for a similar website (i.e.: NBC in America, the BBC in the United Kingdom, etc) and review how they regulate their terms of use. I think a broadcaster is a good example for a blog as the offered services is somewhat similar. Add in the Creative Commons and the Free Software Foundation and I’m sure that covers all of your bases.

I hope this is what you were looking for or at least points you in the right direction!

Cheers,
Michael.

NOTE: Remember, this is not legal advice; all of this is extrapolated and interpolated from common sense and experience in policy analysis. See a solicitor if you require actual legal advice.