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Terms of Service (ToS) - Any standards required?
Hello,
I'm about to get something off the ground with a few other people in partnership
we will be providing Shared hosting, VPS, some addition services in the same category.
Now my question is, do any of you got some advice regarding writing a Terms of Service?
i do not want a ToS that is like an entire page long.. because most clients will not read it
i want it as simple possible but still that it is legally valid if anything happens.
Is it legally possible to not be detailed/specific in a ToS?
Example: You agree to not harm xx company in any way
or do i have to follow some standards in the creation of the ToS?
My reason for asking this is because i wanna be sure that the ToS is going to cover it all without giving the potential customers headaches while he/she is reading it
almost everything will be registered on my real information too so it has to be all valid.
For your information:
i will not be writing this agreement myself, my english grammar is not acceptable for this.
Thank you
Comments
Well, as the Terms of Service forms part of the contract between you and your client respectively, you would have to comply with your local contract law in order for it to be "legal".
Overall, in this industry, it seems accepted that a ToS/AUP is a set of guidelines to protect you from the main risks of being a hosting provider, and to outline your stance on the particulars of use of your services, billing policies, and et cetera. It would also define the action taken upon breach of the guidelines.
While you will find most of the documents in use by providers on this forum probably wouldn't completely stand up to legal scrutiny; they act as a formal documentation of your expectations from the user (and the users expectations of you), which would then be used to inform your decisions further down the line - despite the fact it wouldn't necessarily hold up to a court.
Your example is a clause that would come under "indemnification", if you want the customer to agree to hold you as not responsible for their actions on your services. If you are looking to define specific ways in which the customer could "harm" your services, it would come under your AUP - where you pose restrictions on the services sold.
Again, given that this /should/ be a contractual agreement, and thus comply with contractual law - and in your interests be as "watertight" as possible, it would probably need to be lengthly. That said, there is nothing to stop you putting in a TL;DR at the top with a summary, but obviously explaining that the summary is not part of the actual agreement. Our entire policy is 17 pages long, for instance - and we have a cover page with the key points in bullet form, which is explicitly defined to not replace any of our legal documents, or constitute any part of the agreement.
While I am no expert on law, it is something I've dealt with plenty in the past, so I do have some experience on the matter. Realistically I see that is you're not going to spend money on getting your ToS professionally written, it is best to think of it as a courtesy agreement, and the place to point out your expectations from the client.
I think you need to remember a ToS is a two way street and forms a contract defining both parties obligations. Many companies forget to that and in the UK at least would be reprimanded for it under legal scrutiny.
Your ToS obviously needs to be long enough to cover all bases that you want to cover, so maybe start with a bullet points, then sub-bullets and then write around those.
Your ToS doesn't need to be written in legalese to hold tight and in fact making it clearer for the client is better as in no way can they claim they did not understand the ToS.
Cover your butt. Cover it good. Some people won't like it...tough. They're not liable for all your clients. You are. The TOS is for the protection of both parties and people want to know where you stand. You'll lose potential sales no matter which direction you take it, so just make sure you future proof your policies by keeping them broad and plentiful.
You're always free to accidentally overlook your policies, but less free to invent a new one when you figure out you should've had it in there earlier.
Get a lawyer to write your ToS. It's not expensive. And you can be sure that either a) they are in comply with your domestic and international laws or b) if they appear to be not, you can hold your lawyer liable.
I just wanna keep it short and powerful perhaps try to motivate the potential buyer to read it
but this will be a hard thing to get done, i dont like reading ToS documents myself.
Your limitations on liability and right to termination are the main clauses you should have. Jurisdiction is useful too. Hey, almost like those partnership papers .... Right?
Pay a lawyer
I think i've got enough information now, i'll try to make something of it.
Thank you all.
Most important thing is to state that TOS can change at any given time without prior notice. xD
Hahah...
can a company legally have a short and a long version of tos/aup,
like put a link to long version at end of short version.
Note: don't forget to add BitTorrent Sync - ok for personal use
This is a useful example of how to cover your ass legally, while still keeping things readable: http://www.ramhost.us/?page=tos/tos-vps
And if you're less concerned about covering your ass, here's another simpler example: https://srsvps.com/terms.html
Our vps service will be using KVM virtualization (dedicated resources) and allows torrenting, each vps will include 5TB/m bandwidth or more by default, bt sync wont be a problem.
We will be allowing almost everything aslong its not causing us trouble, if something illegal gets reported we will have to take it down but until then we dont care.