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Legal aspects of Website Development and Maintenance

In the 21st century websites are essential for any business. Most consumers are either gained or retained through some form on interaction with the website. This interaction can be buying a product from an ecommerce website or signing up for a newsletter using a form. In-fact, 80% consumers initially look and assess a product or service through the website. (1) While the process of creating a website is easy, there are many legal issues to lookout for that could make any organization liable to high statutory damages. By Copyright law, without a Website Development Contract in place, the web developer holds the rights to the website. That is why it is necessary to have a formal contract with the web developer that addresses the responsibilities of both parties.

The Website Development Contract is a formal agreement between the developer and the organization that legally binds the responsibilities and should have the following components addressed that could raise legal issues. (2)

  1. Website Design
  2. Source Code Language
  3. Domain Name
  4. Website Content
  5. Policies
  6. Rights (Copyrights, Trademarks etc.)

The contract should also encompass scope of work such as design, development, plugins, testing etc., Cost of service, any charge for additional work, as well as Non-disclosure clauses and who owns the intellectual property on the website.  

Unfortunately, work is not done with the creation and launch of a website. Websites usually require regular maintenance and should be updated frequently with bugs and security fixes. The scope of work for maintenance varies by the needs and complexity of the website but may entail the checking and fixing the integrity of content (links, plugins, videos etc.) and upgrade the security of the website. Like website development, a contract should be created with the website maintainer that can entail the scope of work and other legal issues and may at least cover the following topics. (3)

  1. Cost of Maintenance
  2. Cost of extra services
  3. Nondisclosure section
  4. Termination agreements
  5. Ownership of Intellectual Property

With contracts such as website development and maintenance in place, organizations are better prepared for worse case scenarios and are aware of the services they are expecting and will receive.

References:

  1. https://www.webfx.com/website-maintenance-pricing.html
  2. http://acquirosystems.com/pa/en/website_legal_aspects
  3. https://www.legalzoom.com/articles/creating-a-website-maintenance-contract
  4. Featured Image - Creative Commons - https://undraw.co/license  

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