Copy terms of use

jayandsilo

Would these be covered by something like intellectual copyright laws or is it just a moral dilemma. I am in no position to write a full terms of use that correctly covers me, and since my site is a video site, I was thinking of taking someone like Youtube's and modifying it lightly to suit my site.
What are your thoughts on this? Thanks

scotty

Part of me says they'd probably never know and never care unless you got big and started taking their business. But another part says don't do it. I think you should write it yourself because then you know the ins and outs. The chances of you getting sued or something are pretty low unless YOU post copyrighted material so I don't think you are exposing yourself to any undue risk by writing it yourself. I'm sure you can write a good TOS and when you've done it post it here and people will point out any flaws if there are any.

deStructuralized

You do know that in spite of YouTube's terms of use agreement, networks still approach it each day and demand it take down copyrighted material, right?

That being said, there should be nothing wrong with copying another site's terms of use agreement. What're they gonna do, sue you for infringing on their infringement protection document? Laughing

As I understand it, stuff like that generally isn't covered by copyright, and if it is, that's because the company decided it would be fun to waste a couple hundred dollars. You lose nothing from a business perspective when someone copies your terms of use.