How to Write a Legal Disclaimer for a Facebook Fan Page (6 Steps)
By Louis Kroeck
A disclaimer is a legal document of great importance. Your disclaimer for your Facebook fan page will need to cover some basic areas regardless of the jurisdiction you reside in or the type of content you will be displaying on your fan page. However, because each state has different considerations worth exploring, you should perform thorough legal research or contact an attorney prior to proceeding.
Step 1
Provide a link to your disclaimer at the top of your Facebook fan page. Your disclaimer should be immediately visible to anyone visiting your Facebook fan page.
Step 2
Provide your contact information in your disclaimer, including your name, address, email address, phone number and any other necessary information so that third parties can contact you.
Step 3
Disclaim all rights to the information provided within your Facebook fan page. Any pictures, descriptions or other information related to the subject of your fan page may be the property of a third party. To avoid liability, state clearly on the page that you are hosting the information only as a fan.
Step 4
State that information provided on your Facebook fan page by third parties is not your responsibility and that anyone posting content to your fan page is solely responsible for their own content.
Step 5
Thank the owner or subject of your Facebook fan page. Notify visitors that they should respect the owner's rights and only post content that is not protected under copyright law.
Step 6
Draft standard boilerplate legal language at the bottom of your disclaimer, including a choice of venue clause and a general disclaimer as to all information posted on the fan page. Have an attorney review your disclaimer for validity within your jurisdiction.
References
Tips
- Reposting content such as public Twitter posts or other public material from the subject of your fan page is fair game -- always post material that is not protected by copyright law. Consider adding standard language from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act if you are worried that third parties are going to post protected material on your fan page.
Warnings
- Do no post copyrighted pictures, lyrics, video or other content to your website without the copyright holder's consent.
Writer Bio
Louis Kroeck started writing professionally under the direction of Andrew Samtoy from the "Cleveland Sandwich Board" in 2006. Kroeck is an attorney out of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania specializing in civil litigation, intellectual property law and entertainment law. He has a B.S from the Pennsylvania State University in information science technology and a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio.