Membership Agreements, in the context of becoming a member of an Internet community, are a legal contracts between the user of the site and operator of the community. Sometimes referred to as Terms and Conditions, a user must agree to the terms of the membership agreement in order to join the community. Usually, the user symbolizes his assent to the terms of the agreement by clicking a box next to the phrase that reads something to the effect of: “I have read and hereby agree to the terms of the membership agreement.” This agreement, similar in structure to most other contacts, usually addresses the following issues:

1. Description of Services. The website is providing certain services to the user. The agreement should describe these services so that the user knows what service he or she is receiving in return for either a subscription payment, if any.

2. Membership Term and Terms for Renewal of Membership. The agreement should outline what benefits the member is entitled to and for how long these benefits last. The agreement should also address whether the membership will be automatically renewed, and if not, what the member can do to renew it.

3. Consent to Membership Terms. Generally there will be rules governing a member’s conduct within the community or while using the website. The membership agreement must present these rules and restrictions, thereby giving the member adequate notice of what rules he or she must abide by. Likewise, the agreement should outline what the penalties are for a member who breaks these rules.

4. Disclaimer of Liability by the Website. The member must be aware that the website owner is not liable for any claims that may arise out of another member’s misconduct. This important provision gives notice that the member is “assuming the risk” by using the service. In theory, this provision also protects the owner from any copyright or trademark violations that members on the site may commit. In reality, courts in some instances have found website operators liable for copyright violations committed by members when the owner of the website had actual knowledge of the violation and took no action to remove the infringing material.

5. Contact Information. Ideally the owner should provide the member with its contact information so the member can contact the owner if he or she has any complaints about the service. Federal law dictates that the site owner provides such contact information either in the membership agreement or on another non-conspicuous place on the site. (Note that if the agreement does not contain the owner’s contact information, a member may be able to ascertain the owner’s information on www.GoDaddy.com using GoDaddy’s “WhoIs” feature. This applies only if the owner registered the site with GoDaddy.)

These are the most important provisions of a membership agreement that governs the terms and conditions of using a website. Other boilerplate provisions addressing issues such as Governing Law, Privacy Rules, and Rights of the Member to terminate the agreement may also be included.

RealDealDocs.com is a division of Practice Technologies, Inc. the creators of SmartRules.com.
SmartRules provides step by step guides to local rules and civil procedure for state courts & federal courts throughout the country.

Popularity: 3% [?]

The Internet has pitted entertainers and broadcasters against the studios, networks and production companies. As the Internet expands entertainment accessibility it poses a problem for the business: royalty agreements have a hard time tracking streaming over the Internet.

Royalty agreements for music, film, television and other media artists are severely lacking in streaming audio and visual content. The National Association of Broadcasters has been able to reach a nuanced royalty agreement with SoundExchange, as has National Public Radio. However, webcasters like Pandora, called “pure-play” sites are having a difficult time coming to a royalty agreement as artists desire a per-track royalty fee and these sites are often free to listeners.

As each industry drafts its own royalty agreements, unrepresented artists can use these legal documents as templates with access to the execution copies of professional royalty agreements found online at legal document resources like RealDealDocs.com.

RealDealDocs.com is a division of Practice Technologies, Inc. the creators of SmartRules.com.
SmartRules provides step by step guides to local rules and civil procedure for state courts & federal courts throughout the country.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Nigerian scammers popped up again in the news today, but this time, the scam scenario is a little bit different from what we are used to hearing.

The “You Have a Long Lost Relative Who Died and Left This Money for You” scenario was tossed out on this occasion, and the scammers used a different approach: targeting middle aged, female divorcees on dating sites.

The online dating scam started last year when a middle-aged divorcee received text messages from a man who was about 10 years younger than her.

“The man said, ‘You know, you’re a very pretty lady, I like your profile,’”

“You feel very flattered.” the victim told the Edmonton Sun.

After a few emails and instant messages, the two began exchanging texts and phone calls. Those eventually turned into promises of coming to Canada and getting married. Continuing for five months, eventually came the requests for money,  claiming that the man’s son was hospitalized and needed three surgeries.

“I had so many friends tell me, ‘Don’t send money,’” she said. “But you love that person, you believe what they say. You don’t want to stop.”

All in all, the scammers got about $300,000 out of a handful of Canadian women.  All the lessons in love are tough, but this one was expensive too.

RealDealDocs.com is a division of Practice Technologies, Inc. the creators of SmartRules.com, the first online practice guide for the national litigator and the national litigation practice.

To view the original article, click here.

Popularity: 6% [?]

The old cliché that time is money still manages to ring true in today’s hectic business world. There are a multitude of distractions in the average office, and sometimes, you can fall into these traps without even knowing it. Here is a far from complete list of the top ten productivity time wasters and how to avoid them.

The Internet! - The Internet will go down in history as the greatest communication tool of all time and as the greatest time waster of all time, too. From free gaming sites to endless YouTube playlists to sprucing up your Facebook page, the Internet gobbles time like Pac Man munching blue ghosts. Limit recreational Internet use to lunch times and break times, and that’s it.

Non-business email - Too many businessmen and women combine their personal email and work email into one account, which may be convenient but it can lead to real time wasting. Separate the two so you don’t spend half your day conversing with family members and friends.

Chatting In the office - Even though cubicle walls seem to be getting higher each and every year, they can’t prevent office chit-chatting. A fun and relaxed office environment is important but it can be taken too far and abused easily. Have the self discipline to separate yourself from chats after a minute or two.

Too many coffee breaks - Businesses have been providing free coffee to employees for years to improve productivity, but they may want to start putting coffee machines at every desk, because the long, slow walk to the coffee machine has wasted more man hours than any other single event. Keep the trips to the coffeemaker to a minimum or simply get a bigger cup.

Cigarette breaks - The number of smokers in the US has shrank significantly over the past few years, but those who refuse to give up the cancer sticks are still wasting huge amounts of time. If you can’t give them up, try to limit the number of breaks you take per day to single digits.

Cell phone chats with family friends/texting - Our Blackberries were made to help us do more work out of the office, but they have become a giant distraction when used for non work purposes. Make sure only your immediate family can contact you via your work Blackberry and cell phone and keep it to emergencies only.

Pointless meetings - If you have an office manager that has turned into an office micromanager, you may be suffering from meeting overload. Nothing can sap the productivity from a day like hours and hours of meetings. Try to get the number of meetings reduced so that actual work can get done.

Long lunches - A long lunch is only acceptable if a client is being taken out or entertained. Things like a dentist appointment are acceptable, as well, but a long lunch for the sake of a long lunch should be a fireable offense.

Knocking off early - It is true that more work is done at 10am than at 4pm, but that doesn’t mean that those last hours of the day can’t be used productively. Take time to clean up your office, do paperwork, answer a backlog of emails or touch base with coworkers about certain projects. Just because clients stop answering phones doesn’t mean that work can’t be done.

Digital distractions - From MP3 players to cell phone games, our lives are filled with gadgets that want our attention. Use the same self discipline you use to unplug from the Internet to keep these toys in your briefcase until you are out of the office.

RealDealDocs.com is a division of Practice Technologies, Inc. the creators of SmartRules.com, the first online practice guide for the national litigator and the national litigation practice.

Popularity: 15% [?]

While it looks impressive to have both a law and business degree, some students are finding that it is not all it’s cracked up to be. Take Dina Allam, for example. After graduating from Ohio State University with a J.D. and MBA, she struggled to get a job.

Why? Well, according to Allam, “people don’t see the value in the joint degree. They think I’m confused.”

Long, long ago, a degree was crucial in achieving success. However, the Web (in my opinion) and all it has to offer has been one of several factors in changing all of that. Today, passion is a huge asset and street-smarts to achieve big dreams is also a plus. Now, degrees are still impressive to investors looking to help you out with a start-up business but is the dual degree really the impressive part? Maybe not.

I think so but I’m not hiring lawyers with an MBA. And according to Allam, “they [law schools] made it sound like there were so many careers you could go into. I definitely think all the interviews I had were because I was in business school and not because I had a law degree.”

Popularity: 7% [?]

Blogging has taken the Internet by storm - it seems that everyone is doing it, from your neighbor down the street to famous celebrities and musicians. Blogging is a term that comes from “web logging” and was shortened to blogging; and thusly a weblog quickly became shortened to blog.

Perhaps you want to break into the world of blogging on your own but are feeling a little overwhelmed by the whole concept of starting your own blog. You can start your own blog in a matter of 10 minutes by following these simple steps. However, we are assuming that you have a basic idea of what you want to blog about. If not, that should probably be your first step.

A Place To Call Home
Start by finding a spot to blog. You can use a free blogging place, such as blogger.com, xanga.com or others. You can find the one that you like the best by doing a quick internet search for “free blogs”. There are many out there that use a variety of interfaces.

When you find the one that you choose to use, in this instance, we’re going to use blogger.com, all you have to do is click on the “sign up” button. Once you’ve signed up with your witty name (which is what your blog will be called) you’re almost ready to rock and roll and begin blogging.

Adding Your Own Touches
You can customize the way your blog will look by going to the options portion of your account. It’s not recommended to mess with any of the HTML tags unless you know how to. However, blogger.com allows you to customize your blog with just a few clicks of your mouse. You can choose from themes, color choices and much more.

Begin Blogging
Once you’ve done any of the tweaking to your account for the way it looks when it is published, you are ready to blog. All you have to do is click on “write page” or “write post” and start writing. When you hit submit and publish, the blog you wrote is live. It’s really that simple and takes no more than 10 minutes.

Now that you have an established blog, you can write about whatever you want. Perhaps your blog is just for personal friends and family to read about you and your life. So, your “my blog” is about you and your life. Perhaps you want to update everyone on a new job or promotion, or show off pictures of your kids doing something cute. All of these are easy to do - just point and click to add pictures, video, highlight text, bold, italics, change the font and color - all with just a click of your mouse.

If you are looking to blog about something in particular, for example gardening, ensure you’ve chosen a relevant blog name. George’s Green Thumb Gardening is a good example of a blog name for gardening, but not for writing. Having a relevant blog name will help bring other people to your blog to read. The most important thing to try and do in any niche like gardening is to establish yourself as an expert in the field, so be sure that you’re writing about something you know and that the information you’re putting on your blog is true. Establishing yourself as an expert will bring more people to your blog to read it regularly and soon enough, you’ll have a “fan base” of people waiting to read whatever else you have to say.

Click on one of these links to check out sample legal documents drafted by Amlaw 200 Law Firms for Fortune 500 Companies.

Popularity: 83% [?]

Most business professionals understand that when they step over the threshold at work each and every day, they are entering a professional environment where professional decorum is expected. For some reason, however, the same business professionals forget this little tidbit when they click over to their email. While there is no way to accurately quantify the number of clients that have been lost over the years due to inappropriate emails, the number is thought to be at least seven figures. Today, email clients have everything from grammar and spell checkers to loadable templates and much more. There is literally no excuse for any business professional to send out an unprofessional sounding email. Let’s take a look at some other common mistakes people make with their email each and every day.

Keep personal and business email separate

The average person today has several different email accounts. You have the ones that come with your Internet service provider, you may have a free web based one and you have a work one. It is essential that you keep the two separate, that way you don’t have to switch back and forth from writing casual emails to a family member to writing formal ones to your boss or to a client. If you can manage it, try to not answer any personal email at all at work so that there is never any kind of confusion or lapse in judgment.

Watch mass mailings

Recently, a high ranking official with an NFL team accidently sent a pornographic email to representatives from all the other teams and to the NFL front office by simply clicking one button incorrectly. We all receive mass emails from friends and maybe even from clients on a daily basis. Some are fun and cute while others are more serious. If it is at all possible, avoid sending out mass emails since the probability of something going wrong is greatly increased. A mass email also gives the impression that each person on the email list doesn’t deserve one-on-one attention, which can be alienating. It might take a little extra time, but there is a good chance this personal touch will be noticed and appreciated.

Eliminate email speak

As most of us have Blackberries on our hips and multiple cell phones at the ready, we have taken to the language of texting and emailing like a fish takes to water. While using “:p” and “;)” might work for talking to your child, it probably shouldn’t be used when talking to a potential client. It can be harder to break this habit than you think. This type of shorthand has become intricately ingrained in many people under the age of 35 who have been using the Internet since they were in high school. As more and more tech savvy graduates enter into the world of business, this problem is likely only going to get worse. Break the habit now or you will likely find yourself receiving a quite a lecture from your boss that will leave you.

Click on one of these links to check out sample legal documents drafted by Amlaw 200 Law Firms for Fortune 500 Companies.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Today’s business person will spend hours at the tailor crafting a fine business suit, hours at a power lunch sweet talking their next big client and hours pouring over proposals or negotiations to try to get every last penny they can, and then spend 30 seconds banging out an important email that will single handedly cost them a dozen more potential clients. While grammar and spelling aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, knowing basic email rules is an absolute must in this day and age where email has taken over as the primary form of communication used in today’s business world. Here are a few simple tips.

Let your email utilities work for you

The world of email has come a long way since Outlook Express. Today’s email clients are quite sophisticated and come with all sorts of bells and whistles that can make sending an email easier. It used to be that email spell checkers were absolutely horrible, but they have been vastly improved and most use the same spell check library as Microsoft Word. If your email client is old and doesn’t have a grammar or spell checker, upgrade now, or simply type your emails in Microsoft Word and copy/paste. Make sure you check how the format looks before you do by sending yourself an email.

Use a template

If you have trouble setting up the formal date/address/body/signature form in every one of your emails, than simply write one and save it as a template that you can go back and use again and again. You can even have multiple templates ready to go for clients you email on a frequent basis; that way, much of the hard work is done before you even get started.

Avoid being overly casual

Since most people still view email as a casual way to communicate, the one problem that costs more businesses clients more than any other is the urge to be overly friendly and casual when communicating with current clients or future clients. When writing a professional email, it is always better to sound formal and stilted than casual and overly friendly. If you have trouble coming up with the proper vocabulary, have a dictionary and a thesaurus on your desk that you can flip through to come up with better verbiage. You can even use websites like Dictionary.com or similar sites to help increase your vocabulary so you don’t sound unprofessional in your correspondence.

If all else fails, ask for help

We all know that many competitive office environments will take asking for help as a sign of weakness, but if you want to get the process of writing compelling emails down, there is no shame in asking for an occasional email to be proofread by someone else in the office who has an English background. Most bosses will take asking for help as a sign of maturity, and before you know it, you’ll be a master of the formal email.
Many people think that if you can write a compelling letter then you can automatically write a compelling email. The truth is that writing a compelling email is a learned skill that takes practice.

Click on one of these links to check out sample legal documents drafted by Amlaw 200 Law Firms for Fortune 500 Companies.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Today, there are many different viruses that can attack your computer - the Internet is rife with them, and they can be easily contracted if you don’t know how to avoid them. Let’s look at how you can protect your computer from viruses simply and easily.

Don’t download anything online if you aren’t sure of the source. Even for file sharing between companies, you should ensure that the sharing client has a stable system that is free from viruses before beginning to transfer files or open a direct link.

Don’t download email attachments if you’re not sure about the sender. The best way to start this is to turn off the automatic launching of your email client. It’s best to read your email online where you aren’t downloading anything, including graphics from emails, onto your computer. You shouldn’t open any attachments or allow graphics until you are sure the file is safe for your computer. Check the file attachment extension - if it’s a .pif or .scr extension on the end, chances are it is a virus. Watch out for .exe files, which are executable files as well, that extension is another common outlet for viruses.

Don’t just trust your anti virus program. They are only good for known viruses, but if you are attacked with an unknown virus then your computer could be at risk. Make sure that you update your antivirus often to keep abreast of new viruses and protected against them. However, if you aren’t sure if something is a virus or not, scan it anyway - it’s worth the extra time to check the file before opening it on your computer. Use a quality anti-spyware program to help rid your computer of programs that send personal data to the Internet that could potentially be opening holes in your system that you are unaware of.

Be aware of your settings. Set up your computer so that it doesn’t launch files, download updates, do security checks, load HTML pages or save cookies without your permission for each instance.

Install a firewall on your computer and on your LAN. If you don’t have one, switch operating systems to the most recent which will come with a built in fire wall. Also include a hardware firewall on your computer as well - a router that is easy to set up and helps to protect your computer.

Take some time to learn about how viruses and worms can attack your computer. When you are armed with knowledge, you can protect your computer even further. A simple search on the Internet for information on how viruses work will result in enough information to give you a basic understanding.

Watch the kids on the Internet. Don’t let them utilize it carte blanche - this can open up holes in your computer as kids have a tendency to click on advertisements without thinking about the ramifications of clicking “ok” on a webpage.

Protecting your computer is something that only you can do - no one else is going to do it for you. It’s important to arm yourself with knowledge to protect your computer on your own to ensure that your computer is as solidly protected as possible.

Click on one of these links to check out sample legal documents drafted by Amlaw 200 Law Firms for Fortune 500 Companies.

Popularity: 9% [?]

In the rapidly developing open-source world of the Internet, it is currently in vogue to for software companies to forge partnerships. These partnerships consist of one company, a software developer, contributing software code to another company’s software platform. This code is often in the form of an “add-on application” that allows users to install applications on top of their originally purchased software. Once installed, these applications run as if they were part of the platform’s original software, but in fact, they were designed by outside software companies. In these situations, software designers and platform operators alike must execute a contribution agreement.

Before signing a contribution agreement, the most important decision for the platform-operating client to make is whether or not they will require contributors to assign the intellectual property (”IP”) rights in their contribution to the platform operator. For example, the Internet giant Facebook requires that contributors assign the IP rights to Facebook, but with the provision that Facebook automatically licenses back the IP rights to the developer to use in any way the developer wants. In other situations, such as contribution agreements with Sun Microsystems, the contribution agreement effectuates an assignment of joint ownership of the software code to Sun, the platform operaton. In case the assignment is or becomes invalid, the contributors grant to Sun a perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive license.

Once the platform operator and software developer have agreed on the transfer, assignment, or license of intellectual property rights, the rest of the contribution agreement pretty much falls into place.

Popularity: 12% [?]