A company's website is not the domain of just the marketing
department. It is a cyber storefront and must be legally compliant.
Here are five questions to ask your webmaster and business
lawyer.
1. Do we have a website agreement?
At a minimum, your website agreement should cover copyright,
fair use, terms of sale, privacy, disclaimers, and limitations of
liability. Website agreements also can compel arbitration for
disputes, prohibit deep-linking to the website's content
(discussed in No. 5 below), and contain reasonable waivers of
rights. Businesses may want to avoid overtly-aggressive waivers.
General Mills was subject to a firestorm of controversy when it
added to its legal terms a requirement that "all disputes
related to the purchase or use of any General Mills product or
service ...be resolved through binding arbitration," the
acceptance was deemed to occur by "using our websites, joining
our sites as a member, joining our online community, subscribing
