LIABILITY

[NINETYNINE]

Hey there.

 

I am building an osCommerce site for a client of mine. now we are almost finished I am trying to find out where we stand with liabilities.

 

Once the site is built and handed over to the client, can I be held liable for anything that goes wrong with it? How can I protect myself from any eventuality that could result in failure of the site and subsequent comebacks from the client.

 

all the sites I've done in the past have been marketing / brand sites really and not businesses in their own right. I understand that this site will be the engine behind my clients company and so therefore the weight of liability seems more important.

 

Is it possible to sell the site once built with an agreement stating that we are not responsible for any future failure or something like that?

 

I am based in the UK by the way.

 

Thanks

[MarcoZorro]

You should really be asking a lawyer these questions... any advice here isnt legally binding so we can tell you whatever we want.

[NINETYNINE]

Yeah I kinda know that but wanted to get some feelers out before I start blowing money on legal advice especially if people have already gone through this and can at least point me in the right direction or give me an idea of what I have to do and what I dont have to.

 

Anyone got any experience?

 

thanks

[Guest]

what do you have in your contract with the client?

[NINETYNINE]

We dont currently have a contract, its a pretty casual affair at the moment which is why I wanna tighten it up and arrange something before we finish the site and hand it over. I am assuming a set of terms and conditions is the way to go but I dont know if you can just make up your own terms (within reason obviously) or where they have to be validated by a solicitor to make them legal.

[Guest]

osCommerce comes under the GPL license - this disclaims warranty, so any warranty you give is your own. You cannot re-license osCommerce itself ("sell the site"), so really you can only give an affirmation of your own service.

 

You do not need a solicitor to validate an agreement - just a witness.

 

Best advice is above - talk to a lawyer :D

 

Matti

[Flyer5]

Hey there.

 

I am building an osCommerce site for a client of mine. now we are almost finished I am trying to find out where we stand with liabilities.

 

Once the site is built and handed over to the client, can I be held liable for anything that goes wrong with it? How can I protect myself from any eventuality that could result in failure of the site and subsequent comebacks from the client.

 

all the sites I've done in the past have been marketing / brand sites really and not businesses in their own right. I understand that this site will be the engine behind my clients company and so therefore the weight of liability seems more important.

 

Is it possible to sell the site once built with an agreement stating that we are not responsible for any future failure or something like that?

 

I am based in the UK by the way.

 

Thanks

 

 

I would urge you to speak to a decent insurance company and at minimum take out professional indemnity.

 

If you are producing web sites for paid renumeration you are accountable for "giving duff advice" (to put it bluntly) if things go wrong.

 

Heres a silly example - you advise a client to use oscommerce, and use protx direct. (there is nothing wrong with protx direct i hasten to add) so your client starts trading and is happily collecting credit card numbers on his pc in his office where he employs several employees. lets say one of them is a bit "dodgy" and starts selling the numbers he suddenly finds his boss is collecting.

 

The police come knocking, and several cc companies decide to sue him.

 

who does he blame?

 

You of course - you never told him to restrict access to the cc details, and you clean forgot to mention the data protection act and never gave a thought to his office security. (what if the pc was nicked complete with all the cc details on it?)

 

( Remember, if this is his main income generator, if it goes wrong because of something you did/said/didnt do he will sue you for his lost income. )

 

In this situation A lawer will cost you a fortune, but will be required. It's nice to be indemnified and know that if you do slip up, someone else is picking up the tab.

 

 

F5

[♥toyicebear]

Yeah I kinda know that but wanted to get some feelers out before I start blowing money on legal advice especially if people have already gone through this and can at least point me in the right direction or give me an idea of what I have to do and what I dont have to.

 

Anyone got any experience?

 

thanks

 

Gnu lisence info

[jon_l]

Your main issue is if something is wrong with the website provided. For example;

 

- a security flaw which results in confidential information being accessed by hackers

- the website not functioning as agreed and it fails in a major way

 

No matter what the problem, or what is stated in your contract the chances are that you could and would be held responsible. If you're contracted to provide an ecommerce site and it doesn't work properly you are at fault, no clause in a contract saying that you are not reponsible for any faults is going to get you out of it.

 

One way to protect yourself is by trading as a limited company. Then if it does go badly wrong the company itself is responsible rather than you - and you can always walk away from the company and won't be liable.

 

A lot depends on the scale of things. If you're just putting together the odd website for small businesses then there probably isn't too much to worry about. Whats the worst that could happen? If you're developing bigger ecommerce sites with big sales at stake then you might want to have a bit more protection.

 

Liability insurance shouldn't cost a lot, and should be proportianate to the work you are doing and the potential risk. Make sure you go to a specialist in IT though, or it could be expensive.

 

Getting a solicitor to provide a standard contract for you to use would also be a good move. I'd suggest going to a specialist IT solicitor, as they should have a contract you can buy 'off the shelf'. I'd advise against having a solicitor draw up a contract specifically for you as that can be very expensive (and I speak from experience).

 

Jon.

[Flyer5]

Your main issue is if something is wrong with the website provided. For example;

 

 

 

Liability insurance shouldn't cost a lot, and should be proportianate to the work you are doing and the potential risk. Make sure you go to a specialist in IT though, or it could be expensive.

 

 

 

Jon.

 

 

just a point , it's not liability insurance we are talking about here, its professional indemnity insurance.

They are different, and liability insurance premiums on the whole are considerably less.

 

Having said that I get ?250,000 professional indemnity cover for about ?18.00 a month which is not a lot really.

 

F5

[dynamoeffects]

IANAL, but with around 10 years of web development experience, I can tell you that all you need is a contract that says that you assume no liabilities once the site's handed over. From that point forward, it's their responsibility. At the end of the contract, which I specify as when the site's moved to its final destination and DNS settings point to that final resting spot and doesn't happen until the client has signed a document stating that the work is complete as per the original contract, they are responsible for all security, maintenance, upgrades, etc. If the site's hacked because I forgot to (int) a post variable, or one of their admins rm -rf's the site, the responsibility rests solely on them.

 

Even with that, if you leave a big security hole in the website and your customer sues you, it'll most likely be for negligence. Even with a well written contract, in a negligence suit, it's tough to say which way it'll swing.

 

But let me end it with this: I've developed hundreds of websites and I haven't been sued, or even threatened to be sued once. If that has something to say about the quality of my work, the people I work with, or the alignment of the planets, I don't know. But it's not something I stay awake at night worrying about.

[curt0]

dynamoeffects:

 

Are you willing to provide a copy or sample of the contract that you use with your clients?

[curt0]

just a point , it's not liability insurance we are talking about here, its professional indemnity insurance.

They are different, and liability insurance premiums on the whole are considerably less.

 

Having said that I get �250,000 professional indemnity cover for about �18.00 a month which is not a lot really.

 

F5

 

My friend told me to do a "Vulnerability Test", which tests to see how easy it is to steal the CC numbers or to hack the site. This test costs $2-3K. Does anybody have experience with this and if it is necessary?