Learn about our templates

This page contains some brief notes about the uses (and abuses) of our downloadable templates.

Copyright notice template

The copyright notice specifies the terms upon which the copyright material on a website is licensed to users.

Countries which have signed up to the Berne Convention should ensure that there are no formalistic pre-requisites to copyright protection under their laws. For this reason, copyright will subsist in a website even where there are no copyright notices. However, you should still include a copyright notice because it clarifies permitted uses of the material on the website, and under some legal systems will give benefit you if you need to enforce the copyright.

Copyright notices sometimes form part of another legal documents such as a "terms of use" or "terms and conditions" document.

Click to learn more about our free copyright notice template, or to access the downloadable template itself.

Website disclaimer template

The purpose of a website disclaimer is to try to disclaim liability (or more usually specific kinds of liability) which could arise from a website.

In most legal systems, disclaimers of liability are regulated so that some disclaimers will not be enforceable. Generally, disclaimers of liability that appear in contracts with consumers will be more tightly regulated than disclaimers of liability that appear in contracts between commercial organisations.

Again, a disclaimer sometimes forms part of another website legal document.

Click to learn more about our free website disclaimer template, or to access the downloadable template itself.

Privacy statement template

Data protection law (in the European Union), data privacy law (in the United States), and similar laws in other jurisdictions protect individuals from the misues of their personal information

An important element of these laws is the requirement of disclosure: what personal information will be collected? How will it be stored? how will it be used? The purpose of a website privacy statement is to help website owners with these kinds of disclosure requirement.

Click to learn more about our free privacy statement template, or to access the downloadable template itself.

Cookies policy template

In some legal systems then website operators are subject to a legal obligation to provide information to users about the use of cookies. The purpose of a cookies policy is to assist with these obligations.

Click to learn more about our free cookies policy template, or to access the downloadable template itself.