Typically, logos and other distinctivebranding elements are trademarked—for instance, the Coca-Cola Company not only owns the trademark to the word Coca-Cola and its logo, but also to th
Trang 1Implementing the printer-friendly style sheet
CSS files are linked to the document inside the <head> tag There are different ways ofdoing this, but the most common way is through the <link> tag For instance, this singleline of code might be used to reference the CSS file for the browser display:
<link rel="stylesheet" href="/css/design.css" type="text/css" ➥
media="screen,projection" />
There are several important attributes The rel and type attributes tell the browser thatthe link is for a CSS file, and the media attribute dictates where the style sheet should beapplied In this example, the CSS file is intended for screens (basically traditional browserwindows) and projection environments (which is the term for browsers that operate inkiosk mode8) Linking a dedicated print style sheet is exactly the same, except the mediaattribute changes
<link rel="stylesheet" href=" /css/print.css" type="text/css" ➥
media="print" />
The implementation does not get much more complicated than that The harder workcomes in actually developing and maintaining the additional style sheet, which includeschoosing the page elements that stay and the ones that need to be hidden from theprinter
What stays, what goes
At some point, you have printed a web page Most likely, it looked terrible You wonderedwhy all the extraneous garbage in the navigation, sidebar, advertisements, and footer had
to waste half a toner cartridge when all you wanted was the content When a site is builtusing CSS for design, it’s incredibly easy to hide these elements from printers using a printstyle sheet Typically, the first line of the print CSS file is dedicated to hiding the visual ele-ments not needed for printing For instance:
#header img, #leftcol, #rightcol, ul#menu,
#previousstuff, #commentform, #advertisements {display: none;
}Deciding what actually stays and what goes may provide some consternation Seriouslyconsider what users want when they print a web page 99 percent of the time, the content
is going to be the focus, so do everything possible to remove the noise of the visual designand let the body copy hog the page’s real estate Figure 11-9 shows the content takingcenter stage
Also consider items that rely on an interactive environment for context and functionality.The following items are useless in printed format:
8 Opera is commonly used in stand-alone kiosks because it fully supports the functionality to do
so out of the box For more information, see www.opera.com/support/mastering/kiosk/
Trang 2Advertisements: As much as a sponsor probably wants their ad to appear in every
possible medium, a visitor will never see an ad intruding on their content and take
the time to reopen the page and click the link The small chance of appeasing asingle patron is far outweighed by the certainty of annoying everyone else (This isespecially relevant for animated ads, since only a single frame will even be cap-tured.)
Navigation: While there might be value in reiterating what section the content is
from, there is zero value in printing a bunch of links that cannot be clicked Hide allnavigation items—even contextual pagination menus
Inline links: The anchor text of links inside the body copy should obviously be
retained, but there is little point in styling them differently (which includes ent colors and underlines) If the content is written naturally, and links make sense
differ-in context—for differ-instance, I saw a funny picture today, vs click here to see the funnypicture—users will never know what they are missing
Forms There is no value in printing a contact form that cannot function outside of
a web page This is where real contact information like e-mail, addresses, andphone numbers prove their worth on a contact page
There is a good chance that the final print-ready CSS file will be quite small Since ers do not have to worry about styling every last pixel of the background image, headergraphics, and fancy menu buttons, the bulk of the material will be spent defining typogra-phy and page size
design-Sizing and measurement considerations
In the digital realm, web designers are well acquainted with pixels, percentages, keywords,and ems, all common units of measurement found in CSS files Some, like pixels, are fixed
in size; others, like ems, scale with text resizing inside a browser Because of the prevalence
of these, designers often overlook units that determine physical dimensions, like inchesand points, which are absolute values suitable for use when the final size of the medium—
in this case, a piece of paper—is known Browsers recognize the following absolute values:
in (inches)
cm (centimeters)
mm (millimeters)
pt (points; these are equal to 1/72 of an inch)
pc (picas; one pica is equal to 12 points)Whenever possible, these absolute measurements should be used for print-ready CSS files
Pixels can theoretically be used since they represent a fixed size (0.28mm, according to theW3C9), but results will be far more consistent with everyday measurements
11
9 If you really care about the physical width of a pixel, here is the link: www.w3.org/TR/REC-CSS2/
syndata.html#length-units
Trang 3Absolute units can be used for setting the dimensions of page elements Consider the lowing CSS file that is designed for printing:
fol-#content {width: 7.5in; color: #000;
}
#content h1 {font: bold 12pt Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
}
#content p {font: 8pt "Times New Roman", Georgia, serif;
}
By using these static units of measurement, the page will print nearly identically on
letter-size (8.5✕11 in.) paper across different systems However, since there is no guarantee that
the person will be using letter-size paper, a smarter way of determining the printable area
is to set flexible padding around the body of the document, as shown in this example:
body { padding: 10%;
}
#content h1 {font: bold 12pt Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;
}
#content p {font: 8pt "Times New Roman", Georgia, serif;
}This way, there will always be a healthy padding around the content, no matter what thesize of the paper
Doomsday page
The final piece of contingency design featured in this chapter is for accommodating theworst-case scenario: the entire site is down This is either scheduled or unscheduled Theuser does not need to know the details of the crisis, but they should be assured thatthe staff does indeed realize there is a problem, and if possible, be given a rough estimatewhen the site should be back online
Some corporate websites have a consistent user community that regularly visits forums,administrative sections, and other areas requiring a login This group should always benotified of site maintenance or planned downtime in advance This will significantly reducethe number of panicked phone calls from users demanding to know whether the companywent out of business, was sold to foreign oil investors, or was annihilated by a giant laserbeam from outer space
Trang 4There really are no guidelines to the doomsday page Helpful, friendly messaging is tant, but the content and design is up to the company itself Many of them, like YouTube
impor-in Figure 11-10, have fun with it
Figure 11-10 Many companies, both corporate and consumer,
have fun with their doomsday page
Summary
Solid, thoughtful, and well-executed contingency design is imperative to the success of acorporate website Being able to anticipate different user actions and meet their needs intimes of uncertainty goes a long way in building confidence and loyalty among visitors Acompany that fails to pay attention to the small details of its website, intentionally or not,
is sending a message of poor quality to the unfortunate soul who has the bad luck of ning afoul of the system Helpful content in error pages, well-designed search functional-ity, and thorough form errors can quickly set users back on the right path, spurring them
run-to spend more time with your proper content
11
Trang 51 2 LEGALESE
Trang 6Although most of the denizens of the Web appreciate the cascade of free information thatmakes its way online everyday, most of that content is attached to corporate interests andcopyright law While companies and individuals regularly publish information for anyone
to consume, the strict regulations surrounding the ownership of text, images, and morethat govern the physical world generally translate right into the digital one Unfortunately,the legal arena around the Web has always been a bit foggy This is largely a result of themixed ownership of content, how copyright is handled, how trademarks are protected,and how institutions shield themselves from lawsuit-happy lawyers firing threateningletters at anything that moves
Many corporations have taken it upon themselves to clear up any confusion about contentownership and protection by drafting their own custom declarations Much of this heavylifting occurs within tiny little links marked “Terms of Use” or “Copyright” or “PrivacyPolicy,” usually found in the footer of the site These pages of legalese—which can bemore obtuse than a PowerPoint presentation from the federal government—spell out in
no uncertain terms who is liable for what
While it’s annoying that the Web has fallen into a state of rampant copyright infringementand malicious drive-by malware downloads, a business can take large steps toward pro-tecting its online presence by adding some of this legalese to its website
This chapter is not meant as legal advice, nor is it a definitive guide on writing complexdocuments such as terms of use and privacy statements, which, for some sites, most defi-nitely requires the assistance of legal professionals It is designed to give companies anoverview of the type of material commonly found in these documents, and a baseline formoving toward an official version for their own needs It is also biased heavily toward theAmerican legal system; since every country’s laws vary, it is beyond the scope of this book
to address international law
Intellectual property
There are three different avenues for companies and individuals in the United States toprotect their intellectual property: copyright, trademarks, and patents Copyright andtrademarks are directly related to the Web, patents less so except if the thing beingpatented is a new type of technology that affects how the Web is actually used Most com-panies do not mention patents anywhere on their site unless to display the patent numberunder which their product is protected
Trademarks are used to protect logos, unique elements, phrases, and official names thathave sufficient distinctive character by which the government recognizes the concept asbeing unique and wholly owned by the company Typically, logos and other distinctivebranding elements are trademarked—for instance, the Coca-Cola Company not only owns
the trademark to the word Coca-Cola and its logo, but also to the design of the famous
contoured bottle and the phrase “Make Every Drop Count.”
The third means of protecting content is copyright Copyright protects everything thatgoes into a website—text, graphics, diagrams, scripts, and so on Copyright infringement isall too common, often resulting in lawsuits in which companies and individuals receive
Trang 7handsome compensation for having their work ripped off Several of these lawsuits includehigh-profile companies.
Copyright
Almost all web designers have seen painfully evident copyright infringement in theirtenure Sometimes it’s just an original logo being copped with a color change, other timesit’s the actual graphical layout of the page, other times it’s entire passages of text
Unfortunately, the near-bottomless Web provides ample temptation for unscrupulouscharacters to rip off others’ hard work with a slim chance of ever being caught
Protecting a website from such transgressions is not difficult Once a website is registeredwith the US Copyright Office,1it is officially protected, and the owning company can filelawsuits at their own discretion Unfortunately, simply adding a copyright notice to thebottom of a page does not grant the same power A website must be registered in order
to be fully protected
Determining if copyright is owned
In order to register a copyrighted work, the registering party needs to own every aspect ofthe collective work For companies seeking to register a website, this includes every nook,cranny, bell, whistle, and widget of the website, including the content, plus any proprietaryinformation; the design of the layout, plus the files (e.g., CSS files) and graphics used tocreate it; plus any scripts or unique code created, including the HTML
Smaller companies routinely outsource creative work, and if an agency or freelancer wasresponsible for the design, the company may not own the copyright Similarly, there may
be a discrepancy around the actual text if the business hired an outside copywriter to work
on the site There are different scenarios to consider when determining who exactly ownswhat copyright
If the company employed the writer, designer, or other creator full-time when thecontent was first drafted, then chances are the company benefits from a work-made-for-hire law, which essentially states that anything created while theemployee was fully employed belongs to the company, not the employee Manycompanies ask their employees to sign a piece of paper stating this, but it’s implicit
in American business
If an outside contractor created the work (either design or writing), it only belongs
to the client company if rights were explicitly transferred, or if it was created under
a work-made-for-hire agreement (see the following “Work made for hire” sidebarfor information about this) Otherwise, the contractor technically owns the copy-right and licenses it to the corporation for whom the work was done
For stock photography and clip art, a copyright can be obtained if the artwork isused creatively in a way that constitutes an original work For instance, a singlephotograph, even if purchased under a royalty-free license, cannot be copyrighted;
however, if that photograph is combined with others into an original collage, thatcompilation—now an original work—can be registered
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1 www.copyright.gov
Trang 8While it might sound convoluted to track down copyright ownership for everything insidethe website, keep in mind that this exact practice happens all the time in other creativeindustries like filmmaking Because copyright infringement is so prevalent—and becauseit’s easy to break the law unknowingly—corporations must put in long hours of homeworkbefore trying to register their website It’s usually best to work with a legal firm in this area,since they have a much deeper knowledge of the finer copyright law distinctions.
Work made for hire
Many web design and copyrighting contracts contain a blurb titled “Assignment of Copyright” or something similar, where the owner of the copyright is explicitly stated Under standard copyright law, the creator of the work (the designer or author) owns the final art, not the receiving company, unless the copyright is specifically transferred
to the client in the contract.
Many companies try to circumvent this by asking contractors to sign a hire (often shortened to “work-for-hire”) agreement, which more or less states that everything the artist creates for the project—even material that does not get used—is owned by the client Every full-time employee in the United States is technically under
work-made-for-a work-mwork-made-for-ade-for-hire work-made-for-agreement Beyond thwork-made-for-at, the lwork-made-for-aw becomes very explicit work-made-for-about what exactly can be included in a work-for-hire agreement Section 101 of the 1976 Copyright Act includes the following:2
■ A contribution to a collective work, such as a magazine or literary anthology
■ A part of an audiovisual work
to defend in court Unfortunately, adding work-for-hire clauses to contracts is dard practice for many companies, whether they are enforceable or not, and many contractors naively sign them not understanding what rights they are potentially giving away.
stan-2 www.copyright.gov/circs/circ9.html#determining
Trang 9Registering a copyright
When you are confident that all copyright issues are resolved, the website can be registeredwith your native country In the United Kingdom for instance, websites can be registeredwith the UK Copyright Service.3In Australia, there is no formal registration at all, and thegovernment simply encourages work to be marked as copyrighted when it is created Inthe United States, websites are registered with the US Copyright Office While trademarksand patents can take a long time to register (sometimes years), registering a copyright inAmerica is a comparatively simple and fast process
Registering a site in the United States can be done by the company itself, or through alegal firm In essence, three things need to be submitted: the completed registration form,
a copy of the work, and payment Websites can be registered through either a Form TX(published or unpublished nondramatic works) or Form VA (published or unpublishedworks) Websites that are text-heavy (like most corporate sites) could fit into Form TX;
websites that focus on visual graphics (like a photography portfolio) would use Form VA
This is an admittedly fuzzy distinction, but it’s the best the government has to offer
While a work is technically protected under copyright law as soon as it’s created, withoutdocumentation from an official registration, a copyright dispute can easily degenerate into
a grade school–level “he said, she said” argument Since the cost for registration is socheap (currently $45 in the United States), there is little to stop a corporation from takingthe necessary precautionary steps
In the United States, a copyright lasts for the duration of the author’s life plus 75 years forindividuals Under work-made-for-hire laws, the length is 95 years from the first publica-tion or 120 years from the date of its creation, whichever is less
Copyright infringement
Unfortunately, we live in a world of questionable scruples, where copyrighted material isroutinely (in some cases, even predictably) lifted and copied elsewhere Copyrightinfringement is not limited by any medium or scope—often, small logos or icons arestolen; in other cases, design templates are lifted.4In more extreme cases, entire designsalong with huge blocks of content are copied wholesale See Figure 12-1 for a particularlyegregious example
12
3 www.copyrightservice.co.uk
4 Panic, a software manufacturer specializing in Mac OS X utilities, has a special section dedicated
to the stunning number of icon, photo, and design infringements they have dug up across theInternet, available here: www.panic.com/extras/ripoff
Trang 10Unfortunately, deceitful web designers are often to blame Many companies have beenignorantly sold an “original” design, only to find it was stolen from another site Despitethe fact that they had no idea that their freelance designer had less moral fiber than mostthird-world government officials, the company is still liable for damages if the copyrightholder ever pursues legal action.
In order to confidently pursue legal action, however, the copyright must be registered.Officially submitting the document to the government has several key advantages:Once a website is copyrighted, there is an official date of registration Any copy-right infringements occurring after this date are easy fodder for legal action since itcan be easily proven whose content and design was registered first
Without registration, pursuing legal action can be very difficult While it is possible,it’s kind of like playing the lottery—a lot of people try but turn up empty-handed
at the end of the day
If a work is registered at least three months before the infringement (or within
three months from the time of publication), the original party can collect statutory
damages; otherwise, only actual damages can be reconciled Statutory damages are
calculated damages, and can often run very high—up to $150,000 per offense Thelaw also states that if the “infringer was not aware and had no reason to believethat his or her acts constituted an infringement of copyright,” then the amount isreduced to $200 per offense.5Actual damages, by contrast, are damages actuallyincurred from the copyright infringement This is usually a nominal amount, anddifficult to calculate Thus statutory damages (which are the kind the RIAA claimswhen suing individuals for downloading MP3s) are the favored weapon of lawyers.Pursuing legal action against infringing parties requires legal help As stated before, com-panies often do not know that they are using another business’s design or content, andwill be more than happy to change this once they are informed that they are in fact break-ing the law Even companies that know they are using someone else’s work often backdown after receiving a strongly worded letter from a lawyer’s office Companies thatrefuse, or claim the copyright belongs to them, require further legal action
Figure 12-1 The screenshot on the far left represents the original website A Google search for the first sentence
returns four direct competitors who lifted the entire two paragraphs completely, changing only the product name
5 In the United States, these numbers are found in Title 17, Chapter 5, Section 504, located here:www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode17/usc_sec_17_00000504 000-.html
Trang 11Adding a copyright notice
Almost every business includes a copyright notice on the bottom of its website This meansnothing more than the fact that someone took the time to type it out Unlike a trademarknotice, a copyright symbol is not restricted to content that has been registered, so a copy-right notice offers no indication of whether the site has actually been filed with the gov-ernment’s office
Typically, the copyright notice is a subtle addition, often in small type that is not ately obvious, such as the example in Figure 12-2 The design makes little difference Aslong as the copyright notice follows correct structure, it can look however the developerwishes
immedi-Figure 12-2 This website includes a small copyright notice—“Copyright 2007 Sigma Investing”—on
the bottom
A proper copyright notice includes three things The first is the actual word or symbol (©)for copyright Although only one is necessary, some sites include both, which can be ben-
eficial for international sites since the letter C within a circle is universally recognized as
the copyright symbol The best way to represent this HTML entity on a web page is ©
or © (Simply copying the © symbol into an HTML page will invalidate the HTML—thecharacter needs to be properly encoded.)
The second thing that needs to be included is the date of the copyright This should always
be the current year if the copyright is still valid Many companies fail to update this, andinnumerable sites exist with an embarrassingly outdated year To illustrate, in the survey ofhomepages detailed in Chapter 5, 80.5 percent of the businesses included a proper copy-right notice on their homepage, but of these, nearly 40 percent were out of date, some ofthem three or more years behind
The best way to keep a copyright year current is to use a script that dynamically calls theinformation This way it never needs to be manually updated For instance, if running PHP
on a site, the script would be simple:
Copyright <?php echo date("Y") ?> Sigma Investing
The code is equally simple in ASP, and can also be done in JavaScript with something likethis:
Trang 12</script>
Finally, the copyright line needs to include the holder of the copyright This should be alegal entity—a real person or an actual business, not a pseudonym or a made-up businessname If the copyright is actually registered, this space would be reserved for the holder ofthe copyright as it appears on the form
Terms of use
Part of the evolution of the Web is the increasing reliance on lawyers It’s only a matter oftime before a growing business requires the services of a legal professional who can con-sult on many fronts, but is primarily used to craft wordy, often convoluted pages oflegalese that are commonly tagged “Terms of Use” on a website
The Terms of Use section covers, or attempts to cover, how visitors are allowed to use thesite, from how to structure incoming links, to how the content can be reused, all the way
to notice of possible legal action resulting from improper use of materials As you canimagine, sometimes this can get out of hand Typically, the Terms of Use (sometimes calledTerms and Conditions) section covers the following topics:
Use of the site: Basically, this is a brief welcome message and a definition of what
using the site actually entails (essentially, downloading and viewing content)
Copyright: This is a brief statement of copyright stating that visitors cannot rip off
text or images without express written consent from the company This is fairlystandard, and usually easy to read If a special license is applied to the content (seethe next section), make sure its language does not present a conflicting copyrightmessage
Privacy policy: It is not uncommon for a privacy policy to be wrapped into the
terms of use, especially if it is short and clear This practice depends on the pany and its legal counsel; more involved privacy policies are often relegated totheir own unique page These are covered in the next section
com-Disclaimer: Basically, this states that all content (including text, images, and
down-loads) is covered as is, and the company is not responsible for out-of-date content
It also states that changes can be made by the company at any time
Some copyright notices also include the phrase “All rights reserved,” but this is no longer necessary Most countries are members of the Berne Convention,6 which requires copyright protection be granted without any formality of notice of copyright.
6 The official title is the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works, whosecontents can be read online at www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ip/berne/index.html
Trang 13Limitation of liability: This states that the company is not responsible if anything
bad happens to the visitor while the site is being viewed This blanket statementabsolves them of everything from malicious software downloads to the user’smotherboard melting into a pool of silicon
User-submitted content: This blurb removes the company from any responsibility
involving user-submitted content, such as in chat rooms, forums, and other publicarenas It covers stuff such as misleading information and adult or otherwise inap-propriate content It often claims anything submitted to the site immediately andcompletely belongs to the company, and they can use the material however theysee fit, including self-promotion
Indemnification: In essence, this protects the company from legal action from its
visitors if the visitors themselves are in a legal bind For instance, if you get sued by
a right-wing watchdog group for quoting an article written from a left-wing spective, you cannot in turn sue the website from which the article was procured
per-Jurisdiction: Occasionally a company will dictate the jurisdiction in which legal
encounters will occur This is usually a state or town
Linking: Many companies explicitly state a linking policy, which can often get quite
ridiculous Some companies try to dictate the anchor text (the Olympic committeedid this on its site), or only want links that reference the company in a positive light(the old Cingular wireless website demanded this, and it was carried over by AT&Twhen Cingular was purchased), or restrict linking only to the homepage (Verizon isguilty), or require written permission (FOX News and many other sites7) The issue
of linking to only the website’s homepage makes particularly little sense, since thenature of the Web is to link documents, not just entire domains—which is whysearch engines index every page on a website, not just what the company wants thepublic to see first
Termination: This is another blanket statement that states the company can revoke
access at any time or change the website without notifying its users
This is only a small slice of the content commonly found squirreled away in corporateTerms of Use pages Writing one takes a sharp legal mind to construct the right phrasing
Simply copying from another site is possible, but not recommended—a business that takestheir online presence seriously enough to add terms of use to their site should hire alawyer to draft the text correctly This is especially true if the corporate site relies on user-generated content, since that is sometimes beyond a company’s ability to monitor effec-
7 The Boston School of Electrolysis has one of the more entertaining terms of use regardinglinking (www.bostonschoolofelectrolysis.com/terms.php): “Any business, corporation orindividual person, persons or parties seeking to establish a link or assigned usage of domainregistration to or with Apodictic Incorporated that you please send your request for anapplication and email it to Fivestar@bostonschoolofelectrolysis.com Your cooperation isappreciated and a symbol of respect and honesty that demonstrates your good character
Written requests for links to BostonSchoolofelectrolysis.com are seriously considered andapproved 99% of the time.”
Trang 14Try to keep the language of the terms of use as plain as possible There is no point in
mak-ing the content look like legalese, with convoluted terms (severability always raises some
eyebrows) and ALL CAPITAL LETTERS THAT LOOK IMPORTANT BUT ARE ACTUALLY VERYHARD TO READ Since the concept of terms of use on a website is not going away anytimesoon, incorporating regular, human-readable language will encourage people to actually
consume and understand what is being said.
Special licensing of content
Some companies choose to offer their content through a specific license that dictates howthe content can be used, from distribution to editing to republishing These licenses donot conflict with copyright attribution—the company still retains full copyright to all mate-rial, and can change the license at any given time—but they can conflict with the terms ofuse if these already determine how the content can be used
Most companies will not choose to license their content for competitive reasons On the
other hand, nonprofit groups, churches, and other organizations may want to offer theirmaterial to the public at large legally, and the GNU and Creative Commons licensingschemes are the best avenues for this
GNU Free Documentation License
The GNU Free Documentation License (or GFDL) is a copyleft license that provides anyonethe ability to acquire, edit, redistribute, and repurpose content as long as the GFDL isapplied to the derivative work This applies to both commercial and noncommercial inter-ests It is the complement to the GNU GPL, which is the software equivalent
Copyleft is a term derived from copyright (even using a variation of the traditional
copy-right symbol, as shown in Figure 12-3), and is intended to remove editing and distributionrestrictions from published work Copyleft is a legal licensing scheme that allows theauthor the ability to essentially give away their content to the public—an act hindered bytraditional copyright restrictions—while forcing any derivative works to be licensed undercopyleft as well Copyleft is the defining characteristic of the GFDL and several variations
of the Creative Commons licenses, covered next.8
Trang 15Creative Commons
Many corporations would be understandably nervous about applying a GFDL license to thecontent on their site In most cases, the material is marketing-heavy and represents con-siderable effort to separate the brand from the competition However, the company mayapply one of the variations of the Creative Commons license,9which lays out more explicitusage parameters for content For websites, an author can choose one of six licenses:
1.Attribution alone
2.Attribution plus Noncommercial
3.Attribution plus No Derivative Works
4.Attribution plus Share Alike
5.Attribution plus Noncommercial plus No Derivative Works
6.Attribution plus Noncommercial plus Share AlikeMost corporations would be interested in either license involving no derivatives Thismeans that anyone can redistribute the content as long as the author is properly cited (theattribution) and the work is not altered in any way (no derivatives) The noncommercialtag simply restricts this license to noncommercial use only
Terms of use structure
Typically, the Terms of Use page is linked from two locations First, the footer of the sitepresents an opportunity to reference the link persistently across the site without beingobnoxious People expect that type of link on the bottom of the page; in fact, if someonewere to specifically look for the terms of use, the footer is probably the first place theywould look
Beyond that, terms of use should be linked whenever it makes sense in the context of thepage For instance, if the visitor is signing up to be a member of the company’s forum, theyshould be required to read the terms of use—which often includes provisions for user-submitted content—before becoming a member
The terms of use should encompass only one page Long pages can be made more usable
by providing an inline table of contents, like Sun Microsystems did for their terms of use(shown in Figure 12-4) The links simply go to a block of content further down the pagethat has a complementary link to send the visitor back to the top of the page
12
9 www.creativecommons.org
Trang 16Figure 12-4 Websites with long terms of use can use a table of contents and inline links to help
users jump to their area of interest
Privacy policy
The Web has introduced a whole new set of privacy issues Because information is storedelectronically on networked computers, the theft and misuse of that information becomesmuch more appealing to those looking to turn a profit at the expense of others E-commerce took years to fully gain the public’s trust, because there always seemed to besome story about credit fraud, identity theft, and lost information Couple that with thecomplete breakdown of e-mail security and the problem of spam, and it’s clear why pri-vacy remains a hot point of discussion.10
The reality is that most companies are on the level, and very, very few abuse the tion they keep about their customers and their website visitors However, to gainconsumer trust, even the most ethical and responsible firms need to explain their policiesand how they are maintained A few companies do use the information for legal but
informa-10 The Forrester study “Privacy Concerns Cost eCommerce $15 Billion,” by Christopher M Kelley,shows that not only are the vast number of respondents “somewhat” to “extremely” concernedabout privacy, but well over half believe that the government should regulate online privacylaws The study can be read here: http://web1.forrester.com/ER/Research/Brief/
0,1317,13484,00.html
Trang 17less-than-savory purposes, like mining traffic information for targeted marketing, selling e-mail addresses to marketers, and more Whatever the case, every business should have a
privacy policy statement that outlines exactly how the information is being used.
Privacy policies (sometimes called privacy statements) do not have to be written bylawyers unless the company thinks there may be some legal tripwire that needs to be iden-tified For instance, if a business collects e-mail addresses for a newsletter and then resellsthose addresses to a direct marketing firm, that information needs to be clearly laid out inthe privacy policy without any ambiguity In this case, an attorney practiced in writinglegalese will be able to craft language that leaves nothing to interpretation
A privacy statement should always be written in as plain a vernacular as possible There is
a very good chance that people will seek this information and read it with acute interest,because many are legitimately concerned about how their information gets used Cloudingpolicies behind heavy language will earn little trust
A privacy policy should span whatever length is needed to accurately transcribe the pany’s practices A single paragraph can be enough, but there are times when severalpages are needed.11No matter what the length, it should cover a few key items of interest:
com-Outline exactly what information is stored: For simple sites without interactivity or
e-commerce options, this may include nothing more than traffic logs in the server
Beyond that, explain that anyone signing up for a newsletter has their e-mailstored, and anyone making a purchase has their shipping address and possibly theircredit card information saved as well
Detail how that information is used: As an example, inform readers that generic
server logs—which do not contain any private information—are used to improvethe website design by analyzing traffic patterns and browser statistics Explain howe-mail addresses are used If they are not utilized for anything beyond their primarypurpose (such as a newsletter), explain that; by contrast, if they are sold to theCanadian mafia as fodder for their Viagra spam cannons, explain that as well Formore sensitive information (credit cards), reassure the reader that the information
is secure and never shared.
Always let customers edit their information: This is especially true for any sites
har-vesting user-generated content (such as a forum), but any site that includes login
or membership functionality should allow people to make any changes they want
A privacy policy should state that this is possible, with guidance on how to do it
Clarify the unsubscribe process: Users should be able to remove their information—
especially their e-mail address—from your system at any time, for any reason
Again, the privacy policy is responsible for explaining how that can be done
Provide a means for receiving updates: Inevitably, a privacy policy will change.
Probably not drastically, or even functionally, but occasionally language is altered
to reflect new policies Explain that the privacy policy page is always the best way
to get the most current information Forward-thinking companies with an itch fortransparency may provide a means for subscribing to privacy policy notifications,either by e-mail or RSS
12
11 Buy.com’s privacy policy is almost 7,500 words and 6 printed pages
Trang 18Privacy policies are a sign of the times Because there is such a concern for how tion is handled, especially on the Web, it is more important than ever for corporations to
informa-be proactive in their messaging and approach, and to explain their policies in the clearestlanguage possible Many readers make an effort to educate themselves on the host’s poli-cies before giving information away
For more information about website security and information privacy in general, there arenumerous websites and books designed to guide businesses toward more responsibleaction For news, Privacy.org is a great starting point;12for more detailed resources, theAnti Spam League has a fairly dense website as well.13The Federal Trade Commission (FTC)also provides a good place to learn more about privacy on the Web.14
Summary
While legalese is an annoying and often troublesome area for businesses to contend with,
it is a necessary part of conducting business on the Web When a corporation makes aneffort to polish its language and eliminate ambiguous loose ends, it comes across as a farmore professional and competent organization, regardless of whether the user agrees withthe terms of use or privacy policy Always make sure that the copyright information iscorrect and properly structured, and always ensure that the general legalese that manytake for granted as small links in the footer receives the proper attention from legalprofessionals
12 www.privacy.org
13 www.anti-spam-league.org
14 www.ftc.gov/privacy
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