One of the best ways for you to earn the trust of your site's visitors is to post a privacy policy. This policy usually specifies how the site owner will use any personal information entered by the visitor. For instance, whether all personal information is kept private, or if it is sold to other companies for marketing and research purposes. You might think of this as the opposite of the expressed license statement described earlier in this module.

Terms of use statements most often appear on Web sites when users download files such as games or software. The statement lets users know the terms and conditions for using those files. Some Web sites also list the terms and conditions under which their copyrighted or trademarked materials may be used. "Terms of use" statements also frequently appear during the software installation process. They often appear as a splash screen and require you to click an OK button to continue with the installation.
Another form of "terms of use" statement is the license agreement found on the envelope containing software. When you open the envelope, you are agreeing to the terms about using the software.
In the next lesson, you will be introduced to international copyright and trademark issues.

In this case, Craigslist brought claims of copyright infringement against a number of defendants based on their activity of aggregating and republishing ads from Craigslist and, in the case of the defendant 3Taps, marketing a "Craigslist API" that allowed third parties to access large amounts of content from Craigslist. The defendants brought a motion to dismiss on the ground that neither the individual ad postings nor Craigslist's compilation of them were copyrightable. The court rejected the motion, ruling that Craigslist had adequately alleged that its users' ads had a level of creativity that was not trivial and therefore sufficiently original to fall within the scope of copyright protection. It also ruled that the allegations in the complaint that Craigslist had decided which categories of ads to include on its web site and under what name were sufficient to demonstrate a minimal level of creativity to establish that Craigslist could potentially have a copyright in the compilation of ads on its web site.

Click the Quiz link below to test your knowledge of trademarks, service marks, and privacy and "terms of use" issues.
Trademarks Privacy - Quiz