Legal Issues & Resources

While you may not have any legal exposure related to a basic WordPress site, the more you publish the more likely legal issues are to come up.

Harvard’s Digital Media Law Project is a great resource. For example, check out Forming a Business and Getting Online and Dealing with Legal Threats and Risks. In addition, they have a number of state by state guides.

Web developer Darin Reid suggests Docracy, another open collection of legal documents.

Hi, I run Lookahead Consulting in Seattle. Follow me @reifman or email me.

Key issues that you may want to consider include:

• Contracts with non-disclosure agreements for contractors and consultants that you hire
• Copyright and trademark issues related to your intellectual property; and refraining from violating other people’s copyrights and trademarks
• Keeping up with your bookkeeping, city, state and federal taxes and 1099’s for independent contractors
• Addressing your website ownership and maintenance in your will

The Creative Commons public domain sharing licenses can be quite helpful as well. For example, Flickr has a variety of Creative Commons photos that you can use on your site as stock photos with the appropriate attributions.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is also a great resource worth supporting.

Please feel free to ask questions or post comments to this guide below. You can also reach me on Twitter @reifman or email me directly.

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