Web Apps and Lawyers

Some very sensible comment -
helpfully reported by Suw Charman at Strange Attractor -  from Matt Haughey at the Future of Web Apps ("FOWA") held in London last week:

Legal problems. Anything multi-user will have legal issues. Comes up more often that you think. You make a multi-user apps, and it's used by the world, so try to understand which laws apply. Find a well-versed internet lawyer. Might take a while to find someone but worth finding someone who understands the internet. Set up a business to give protection to your own personal life. Terms of Service and Privacy Policies - be clear about what you are going to do with people's contributions. Get a lawyer to help on language with that. Copyright law, e.g. DMCA in the US. If you're accepting content from people you could put yourself in legal hot water if someone uploads copyrighted materials.

From the lawyer's perspective, it is vital that clients are clear about what they are going to do with both their service and any content provided. It's all too easy to cut and paste someone else's terms and conditions, but there's a risk attached to that. Other people's terms rarely work the way you want them to work.