Remember, these suggestions are not a replacement for real legal advice. If you have specific questions, it’s best to ask a professional who knows the law.

To help set you on the right legal track, we have a collection of WordPress plugins that can help with many of the different legal aspects of running a website. We’ve organized them by category to make it easier for you to find what you need. These plugins can be a big help in making sure your website is on the right side of the law.

EU Cookie Law WordPress Plugins

Cookie Notice by dFactory

Cookie Notice by dFactory provides an easy way to let your site’s visitors know about your use of cookies. You can customize a notice that will appear either on the top or bottom of the page. Users can accept, decline, or read more about your policies via clickable buttons.

CookieYes Cookie Banner & Compliance Plugin

Cookie Law Info will create a customizable banner to inform visitors of your cookie policies. The banner can be automatically removed after a few seconds, or you can require the user to accept your terms manually.

Privacy Policy & Terms of Service WordPress Plugins

Auto Terms of Service & Privacy Policy

Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, have created both a Terms of Service and Privacy Policy under the Creative Commons Sharealike license.

Auto Terms of Service and Privacy Policy brings these documents to your site. Simply add your organization’s info in the plugin settings and display the documents via a WordPress Shortcode. This plugin is meant for sites based in the United States.

WPLegalPages Privacy Policy & T&Cs Generator

WPLegalPages will generate a variety of must-have compliance documents for your website. The free version of the plugin includes a privacy policy, terms & and conditions, DCMA policy, and more.

Setup is simple – enter your business name and select which documents you want to generate. A cookie consent bar is also included. The pro version ups the ante with guided wizards, age verification, and popups.

EU VAT WordPress Plugins

WooCommerce EU VAT Compliance

Those running WooCommerce can take the pain out of VAT with WooCommerce EU VAT Compliance. It will record a customer’s location, show VAT calculations in the backend, and automatically add VAT to product pricing. You can even block out EU customers if you’d rather not collect VAT at all.

EDD Quaderno

EDD Quaderno helps to make Easy Digital Downloads shops compliant with VAT and the intricacies of other locales. It will also create improved versions of the standard EDD receipts. To use the plugin, you’ll need a Quaderno account.

Age Verification WordPress Plugins

Age Gate

Age Gate is a highly configurable plugin for restricting age-based content. Select the minimum age along with the content you want to protect, and underage users will be locked out.

Choose from a variety of user input methods (dropdown, text field, or yes/no buttons) and customize the look of the UI to match your website. The plugin is also SEO-friendly and won’t try to restrict common search bots.

Easy Age Verify

Make age verification simple with Easy Age Verify. The plugin offers turnkey settings based on different types of website content. It’s also built with accessibility and SEO in mind. The pro version is fully customizable, with the ability to match your site’s look.

Digital Signature WordPress Plugins

Gravity Forms Signature Add-On

This unofficial add-on for Gravity Forms will allow users to digitally sign documents on your website. There’s also a version for Ninja Forms.

CF7Sign – Signature Field For Contact Form 7

Adding a signature field to your Contact Form 7 forms is just a click away. Once you’ve installed and activated CF7Sign, a “Sign” field will be added to your forms’ options. There’s not much room for customization here, but it’s a dead-simple solution.

Keeping it Legal

Granted, it can be a bit of a hassle to keep track of compliance issues. But that doesn’t make it any less vital to do so. WordPress plugins are there to make the task a bit easier – even automating the process in some cases.

So, there’s no excuse for slacking! Take some time to learn your responsibilities as a website owner and use the handy plugins above to help you manage. Obviously, using these plugins alone won’t make you compliant – but they will help set you on the right path.

The post 10 Best Free Legal Compliance Plugins for WordPress appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Distributing any work – a piece of code, a software program, or even markup – under an open source license implies that the original creator has granted specific permissions to re-use and re-distribute the work without prior approval. It does not equate to a relinquishing of all copyrights; instead, it facilitates the use of existing work by other programmers and developers, provided they credit the original author.

Not all open-source licenses offer the same provisions and copyright protection, however. Each open-source license must be approved by the Open Source Initiative (OSI). While the OSI approved-license count stands at 67, only a few of these are widely used by programmers.

Below, we’ll cover ten most-used open source licenses:

1. General Public License (GPL)

Approved in February 1989, the GPL is the most commonly used license for open source work with over 50,000 SoureForge.net projects in existence. Version 3.0 of the GPL includes provisions for others to copy and modify your code, but only if they include attribution to the original in the source code. The GPL also includes strong ‘copyleft’ measures.

‘Strong’ copyleft measures imply that any program that uses your code must be distributed under the same license. ‘Weak’ copyleft measures do not necessitate this restriction. Essentially, this dictates that if you borrow GPL licensed code, you have to release the finished software under GPL license too, and not any paid or proprietary license.
GPL v. 3.0 also provides direct patent protection – a provision lacking in most open-source licenses.

GPL includes provisions to allow you to sell the open-source software, but only if you explicitly mention that the software is open-source and can be downloaded for free.

2. GNU Library or Lesser General Public License (LGPL)

The LGPL includes fewer measures of protection than the GPL with only indirect patent protection and weak copyleft measures. This has made the LGPL the license of choice for libraries, as code licensed under the LGPL can be used in paid and proprietary software.

Only changes to the library code itself must be open-sourced; the remainder of a project using LGPL code may remain closed-source. The LGPL license was approved in June 1991 and covers over 8,000 SourceForge projects.

3. BSD License

The BSD license comes in multiple flavors, of which, the two most popular ones are BSD-3-Clause (or “New BSD license”), and BSD-2-Clause (“FreeBSD license). These two licenses offer less protection than the GPL, and simultaneously, fewer restrictions on distribution.

Both BSD licenses provide unlimited redistribution without any patent protection or copyleft measures. The BSD-3-Clause license differs from BSD-2-Clause in that it includes an anti-endorsement provision. Basically, this means that if you’ve contributed to any work, your name cannot be used to endorse or advertise the work without express permission.

4. MIT License

The MIT License is the oldest open-source license still in use and dates all the way back to September of 1987. It is also the broadest of all licenses with very sparsely defined provisions regulating distribution, endorsement and copyleft measures. Essentially, it provides for anyone to modify, copy and use any piece of the code or software howsoever he wants, as long as the finished product includes a copy of the license.

An update to the license – the MIT/X11 license – adds an anti-endorsement provision. This is the least restrictive open-source license and has over 1300 SourceForge.net projects in existence.

5. Mozilla Public License 2 (MPL 2.0)

Initially approved in 1998, the first version of the MPL (MPL 1.0) was more “business friendly” and included fewer copyright measures than the GPL. A January 2012 revision to the license – MPL 2.0 – corrected compatibility issues with the GPL and Apache licenses.

Broadly, the MPL 2.0 is compatible with both the GPL and Apache licenses (a provision lacking in MPL 1.0) and may be combined with proprietary code in a “larger body of work”. It also includes direct patent protection, and must include attribution in the source code.

6. Apache License v 2.0

The first version of the Apache license was drafted and approved in 1995. The Apache license is broad in its scope and grants significant rights to copyright holders. Specifically, it dictates that all rights are perpetual, global, non-exclusive, and irrevocable. Once granted rights, you are free to use them forever, anywhere in the world, and no one can take them away from you.

The non-exclusivity clause means that anyone can use the licensed work.
Besides, the v 2.0 of the Apache license also includes patent protection. It doesn’t include any copyleft measures, which means it is compatible with paid and proprietary software.

Image Source

7. Eclipse Public License (EPL)

The EPL was published by the Eclipse Foundation in 2004 and borrows most of its clauses from the GPL. The EPL superseded the Common Public License (CPL), originally published by IBM in 2001.

The EPL’s primary aim is to facilitate collaborative open-source development by allowing it to work with proprietary licenses. Consequently, it includes weak copyleft measures and is thus incompatible with the GPL. Under the EPL, anyone can edit, modify, copy and distribute any work, provided it does not borrow any work licensed under GPL.

8. Common Development and Distribution License (CDDL)

The CDDL is based on the MPL v 1.1. The CDDL is compatible with most open-source and proprietary licenses, save the GPL. It includes limited copyleft measures, and measures that allow anyone to edit, modify and use code with appropriate attribution in any work, commercial, or otherwise.

9. Open Software License (OSL)

The OSL is similar to LGPL in its clauses and weak copyleft measures, but differs from it in one crucial aspect: the OSL includes a ‘patent action termination clause’. Essentially, this means that the license is terminated automatically as soon as anyone files a patent infringement lawsuit. It also includes a clause that dictates that all derivative works must be distributed under the OSL license.

10. Academic Free License (AFL)

The AFL was published in 2002 in an attempt to remedy the deficiencies of the BSD, MIT and Apache licenses. It provides similar measures for redistribution, modification, and attribution, but adds a few more clauses that include patent and copyright grants for the software. The AFL is incompatible with the GPL on account of its lack of copyleft measures.

The post Understanding Which License to Choose for Your Code appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.

Every image you find online belongs to someone. A photographer has invested time, energy and expense to capture that perfect image, so they are entitled to be paid for its use. Sometimes people are willing to let you use their photos for free under certain conditions. You need to ask before you use any picture.

Below are some common misunderstandings about image use:

Images You Find Online

Every image belongs to someone. You can NEVER just take an image from another website, even if you link back. Sometimes the copyright owner will take you to court and sue you for thousands of dollars for using their image without written permission. There are many cases where this has happened.

You can never copy a photo you find on another website. That is theft. If you link back it is theft. If you use it in a meme or infographic it is theft. You must research any photo you use very carefully. That is the only way to stay out of court.

Public Domain Images

Public domain rules are anything but simple. An image might be in the public domain in one country but copyright in another. Some 60 year old images are automatically in the public domain, others are not.

You can find collections of public domain images but all carry health warnings. You cannot use even public domain images that contain recognizable photos of people or private property, including logos without signed releases from the model, property or logo owner.

Are Public Domain Images Safe to Use?

They are safer than most. They have the added advantage that you are not required to link back to the source. They are not 100% guaranteed safe though.

US Government Images

People often quote US government photos as being totally safe but the screenshot above shows they are not.

Are US Government Images Safe to Use?

Many are safe, but you still need to check. You also need to check for faces, logos and property rights issues in every photo.

Creative Commons

There are different creative commons licenses. You need to understand the limitations of each one. All involve linking back to the source. Some allow you to use the image commercially. (Use on a blog counts as commercial use.)

Screenshot Source

Photos that are licensed with a creative commons license rarely have model releases or property releases. Anyone who sees thin your photo can sue you in the courts for using their image without permission. The same is true if you have a picture of someone’s house or car. You need a signed release by the owner of any property depicted in your photo.

Are Creative Commons Images Safe to Use?

Maybe. You still need to check for earlier publication of the photo to make sure someone has not taken a copyright image and re-posted it as creative commons. You can also only use images that are licensed for commercial use, even if it is just to illustrate a blog post.

Flickr

Flickr is the single most widely-used source of website images. Anyone can post any image on Flickr and re-label copyright material as creative commons. Yes, it is illegal, but the copyright owner is going to come after YOU, not the person who re-labelled his copyrighted photo.

Even big players like the BBC have been caught using Flickr images without permission.

Are Flickr Images Safe to Use?

Probably if you hotlink the image rather than hosting it on your own server, but it is still best to take legal advice before doing so. Most Flickr images have no model releases or property releases, so using them opens you up to legal concerns because you cannot just use someone’s image without permission.

Pinterest

Every Tom, Dick and Harriet post pictures on Pinterest. These people do not check copyright or usage permissions. If you just take an image you find on Pinterest it is very dangerous.

Are Pinterest Images Safe to Use?

They might be, but you need to check the image source and history to be sure. Pinterest images are highly unlikely to have model or property releases, so using them is never going to be trouble-free.

Free Stock Photos

The better website building programs, like IM Creator, include a section with free to use photos called IM Free, but there are still rules you have to follow. You can also use Pixabay although their database isn’t as rich as the aforementioned IM Free.

Sources of Genuinely Free Images

Free Stock Photo Sites

Free stock photo sites have some images available for free. You usually have to use an attribution link back to the site andd you still have to be careful to check for model and property releases.

Your Camera

You might think your own personal pictures are safe to use, but you still need property and model releases. Taking photos of the Eiffel Tower and using them can land you in hot water, because the owners of the Eiffel Tower have property rights and you need their permission to use an image of their property.

Even a street scene that includes people’s faces and cars can lead to trouble.

If you intend to take your own photos then you are best avoiding technology, faces and famous buildings.

The post Some Common Legal Misunderstandings About Image Usage appeared first on Speckyboy Design Magazine.