I received an e-mail from a soon to be web host the other day, and they asked:
“How often should I look over my terms of service?”
Most people think a terms or service and acceptable use policy are things that you should put up once and then forget about. We could not be further from the actual truth of things though. Sure you don’t need to review it daily, weekly or even monthly. I would suggest reviewing it once a year though to make sure all your ducks are in a row.
Has your business model changed? Maybe you started offering new plans or features you didn’t in the year before. If so this might be the time to include something about them so nobody will say they were not featured or told about when it comes to these new things you are offering.
Have bad things happened? We often learn from our mistakes – and if any have been made you should update your terms of service to reflect them so they don’t happen again. Maybe you had somebody not aware of the DMCA or you had somebody hosting a kind of script that ate away at your server resources?
Cover all the basics! Here are some of the basic things you should make sure you cover in your terms of service or your acceptable use policy.
- Spammers are not Welcome
- DMCA and Copyright Notices
- No Breaking the Laws
- Terms of Cancellation and Suspension
Last but not least you should make sure you have something in the bottom of the terms of service that says something to the effect of, “We have the right to change this at any time for any reason. As soon as it gets updated, the new policy will be in place. Please check this page often for updates”. This covers your bases for quick changes you need to make.
