Uploaded user data

If your website will be allowing users to upload content to your web server and re-publish it with their blog posts, you will most definitely want to employ Terms of Use by which: (i) your users are representing and warranting that they have the rights to engage in whatever behavior they are on your website (e.g., ownership of content they are uploading); and (ii) your enterprise is availing itself of the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, 17 U.S.C. s 512 (“DMCA) by identifying proper take down protocol and the identity of your Designated Agent. There are many other provisions to which you will want your users to be bound, and in the absence of the foregoing your enterprise may be liable for what your users are doing. To the extent you intend to commercialize your user-ship, you will also want to employ a Privacy Policy that expressly allows you to market yours and other services. Terms of Use and Privacy Policies, while often perceived to be “canned” sets of terms, are extremely important instruments which, if ambiguously drafted or drafted in ignorance of various state laws, can create significant risk. Speak with a local IP or IT attorney in private to discuss your goals for the website and how you may be best protected.