You know those tiny little links you see at the bottom of a website that say “Privacy Policy” and “Terms and Conditions” and “Disclaimer” and are filled with phrases like “to the full extent allowed by law” and “including, but not limited to the implied warranty of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose“?
You may know it as “The Fine Print.”
And you may think, “I don’t need that for my business. I’m still too small. Besides, nobody reads the fine print anyway.”
And that, my dear Coach, would be an excellent example of how so many online business owners leave their ass(ets) exposed.
What are “assets”?
Your assets are your intellectual property, such as:
- Your website and its original content;
- Your products;
- Your services;
- Your blog posts;
- Your photos and graphics;
- In other words… everything you rightfully own.
Exposing your assets makes you vulnerable to copyright infringers and lawsuits.
Covering your assets means you take legal steps to give notice that people are on your property and that they must follow the rules or go away.
One simple step you can take right away is to put a Copyright Notice on your website. It looks like this:
© 2015 Your Company’s Legal Name
It’s important that you include 3 things, in this order:
-
The copyright symbol © or the word ‘Copyright’;
-
The year of first copyright;
-
Your business’s legal name.
Put your copyright notice in the footer of your website and make sure it’s on all your content, whether free or paid. This lets would-be infringers know that your stuff is not free for the taking. Without a copyright notice they could use the defense of “innocent infringement.”
For full copyright protection you’ll want to federally register your copyright. Read more about that HERE.
I know. This part of doing business isn’t sexy.
Or maybe it is?
I happen to think it’s a LOT sexier than those bright orange jail jumpers, don’t you? Please don’t put your head in the sand on this one. This is the part about running your business that may very well keep you out of jail garb!