Alasdair Taylor, Author at SEQ Legal - Page 9 of 14

The Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy is the grandfather of domain name dispute policies, having been approved by ICANN back in October 1999. It governs arbitration proceedings involving the most important gTLDs, including disputes about .com, .net, .org, .biz and .info domains. In addition, some ccTLDs registries have voluntarily adopted the UDRP. The UDRP […]

How many legal documents should a website include?  This depends to an extent upon the nature of the website, but just as important are the inclinations of the website operator. Where possible, I try to limit the legal documents to two: a terms and conditions document and a privacy policy. The privacy policy is kept […]

This question is commonly asked and easily answered: you can’t. That’s right, in practice you can’t ensure that a website will comply with all applicable laws. Why not? To answer this question, you need to appreciate a couple of basic legal points. First, a website may be impacted by laws of many different kinds. Examples […]

The ease and informality of digital publishing have led to an increase in complaints about false attribution: that is, representations that a person is the author of a work – such as a blog post, photo or graphic – when he or she is not. There are several common scenarios: using the name of a […]

What is the difference between an exclusive grant of rights and a non-exclusive grant of rights? Is there any difference between an exclusive grant and a sole grant? In this short post, I try to answer these common contract-related questions. Many types of commercial contract feature the grant of rights by one person or company […]

On 26 May 2011, the rules about the use of cookies and similar technologies were changed. The change was prompted by amendments to the EU’s Privacy and Electronic Communications Directive. Although several weeks have passed since the change, few websites comply with the new law, and confusing guidance from the UK and EU data protection […]

There are three fundamental requirements for the formation of a legally enforceable contract, and they are as applicable online as offline. First, the contracting parties must agree on the terms of the contract, through the issue and acceptance of a contractual offer. Second, they must intend to create a legally binding agreement. Third, the contract […]

Discrimination against people with disabilities is prohibited by law, but website owners often don’t realise how the law affects websites. A 2005 study found that as many as 97% of European public service websites failed to provide a minimum level of accessibility. There are few reasons to think that commercial websites are more accessible than […]

English law can be unfair.  In 1962, Peter Beswick agreed to hand over his business to his nephew, John.  In exchange, John contracted to pay a sum of money to Peter each week and, after his death, to Peter’s widow.  After Peter died, John decided not to pay. He almost succeeded.  Peter’s widow could not […]

Non-disclosure agreements (NDA) impose obligations to refrain from disclosing  information, take measures to protect the confidentiality of information and/or use information only for a specified purpose or purposes. In this post, I look at the issues surrounding the use of NDAs in the IT industry, and consider some of the the typical situations in which […]