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Thread: TOS and AUP

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
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    Ontario, Canada
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    TOS and AUP

    Hey guys! We are working on getting our company off the ground and wondered how you all went about doing your terms of service and acceptable use policy and stuff like that? Did you hire a lawyer and go through everything bit by bit, or are there companies out there that will allow you to use something similar to there's? I want to make sure we cover our butts, and I don't want to copy someone elses word for word.....any help or advice would be appreciated.

    Greg

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Location
    New York City
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    We went to a local business lawyer who had copies of some on hand and we went in and told him what we did and didn't want happening, etc. It took about 45 minutes each but it was worth it.
    Brad Lockman
    THRIVE Corporation

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Oct 2002
    Location
    North America
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    1,229
    There are companies out there that sell boilerplate hosting legal documents...but I would be very cautious about using them. Depending on your area's laws, they may not cover everything...or may state some things which turn out to be unenforcable.

    You're safer off going to a legal professional, even if you write one yourself. They can check over the document you've written and point out any changes or additions that need to be made.
    Lesli Schauf, TLM Network
    Linux and Windows Hosting: Scribehost

  4. #4
    If you are renting your servers from a datacenter, you could start by reading their AUP/TOS and make sure that your aup/tos covers what they say as your clients have to comply with their rules as well.

  5. #5
    Definitely seeking a lawyer would be good.... been surfing these forums and that is what most people say.

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
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    VA, USA
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    I'd recommend asking your upstream if you can either use their's and add in whatever you feel you need to (but you can't take away because you have to act within theirs). If you feel you need a high level of customization then take your upstreams into a lawyer and build off of that (get your upstreams consent before using their documents).

    I doubt any upstream would deny you using their documents though, it's in their best interest.
    Matt Walters
    http://mattwalters.net/ - Weblog

  7. #7
    We had a lawyer that specializes in the internet make us our TOS, AUP, and SLA. It ended up being 24 pages in Word. I would say it has a lot covered in it.

  8. #8
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    By upstream provider do you mean the company I presently have a reseller account with?

    Greg

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Posts
    301
    Take your upstream provider's AUP and TOS, and change the company name to yours. Same as if you're a reseller. You can add your own items if you need to, but remember that all of your customers must conform to the same policies that your upstream has limited you with. Your provider won't mind if you take this from their site, in fact most encourage it.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Feb 2004
    Location
    Canada/Brazil
    Posts
    265
    I wrote my own and made sure it included everything From my resellers..but in my own words..

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Location
    VA, USA
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    Yes, upstream means the person your account is with (whether it's who your reseller account is with, your data center, etc. It's whoever is above you in the food chain of the internet). I still recommend you ask your upstream, but as Indy4 said, they shouldn't mind it and most encourage it.
    Matt Walters
    http://mattwalters.net/ - Weblog

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Ontario, Canada
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    I asked and they are more then happy to allow us to use them. Go VONETWORK!

    Greg

  13. #13
    Originally posted by Indy4
    Take your upstream provider's AUP and TOS, and change the company name to yours. Same as if you're a reseller. You can add your own items if you need to, but remember that all of your customers must conform to the same policies that your upstream has limited you with. Your provider won't mind if you take this from their site, in fact most encourage it.
    Some will mind. My provider didn't like me using their AUP on my site.

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