Just as running your organisation in the physical world raises legal issues, so too does your activity in the virtual world. The nature and context of the legal issues that arise for your organisation will depend on the specific type of activity.

Developing an online presence

If you decide to engage someone else to assist in developing your online presence or implement your digital strategy, you will need to give consideration to preparing a contract that outlines the respective rights and responsibilities of you and the developer. These could include practical matters such as a precise description of the work to be completed, a timetable for completion, costs, and a payment schedule. Legal issues may include ownership of software and content created for the website, who is responsible for licensing of third party software and content and warranties and indemnities.

e-Commerce and fundraising

If you decide to engage in e-commerce or online fundraising, it is important to pay careful attention to your legal obligations in relation to your customers, supporters and donors. There are specific fair trading and consumer protection laws that will apply to your organisation online, just as they do offline.

In particular, these laws can require you to provide clear in statements—prior to the completion of any transactions—all relevant terms and conditions governing purchases or donations, the responsibilities of customers or donors and your policies for cancellations and refunds.

You may find it useful to consult the Australian Guidelines for Electronic Commerce developed by the Treasury.

For community organisations considering online fundraising, see the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) fundraising guide. The ATO website provides other important legal information and links to relevant state and territory resources.

As e-commerce potentially opens up your organisation to transact with anyone in the world, you will also need to think about how the Goods and Services Tax interacts with international transactions.

Domain names

Domain names are like any business name or brand that you use in the physical world–they acquire goodwill and are an easy way for people to remember where to find you online. You need to think carefully when choosing a domain name because the usual laws governing trademarks and business names apply.

Website terms and policies

If you decide to establish a website or have any other type of online presence, you may wish to consider developing policies that clearly explain to your customers, supporters and donors your terms for doing business or interacting online. These may cover issues such as the accuracy of the content, your liability for content or material presented online and the rights of your customers, supporters and donors when engaging with you online.

In particular, it is important to give very careful attention to the privacy and security obligations on your organisation when collecting personal information from your customers, supporters and donors.

Much of the online metrics and feedback that make having an online presence beneficial include personal information. It is good practice to clearly display your privacy policy and explain your security practices, particularly when inviting your customers, donors and supporters to register their contact details.

You may need additional policies for other functionality on your site. For example, if you sell goods, you may need to consider having a sales and returns policy. If you host a blog or online forum, you may need a moderation policy outlining how you will review and manage customer contributions to the blog or forum.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission website provides the following resources on legal issues relating to doing business online:

• Doing business with consumers on the internet;
• Dealing with competitors online;
• Trading online internationally; and
• Unfair contract terms law;

Intellectual property and using content

When you are developing content for your online presence or marketing campaign, it is important to pay careful attention to where the content comes from, who owns it and whether the owners agree for you to use it.

If you or your employees develop your own content, then you are free to use it as you wish. If you contract another person to develop material for you, as a general rule you need to make sure you have a written agreement that clearly states who owns the rights to that content. If you find content from somewhere else, for example, online or through a stock photo library, it probably belongs to someone else.

Copyright law (subject to some exceptions) requires that you ask for permission before using it. You can check for any applicable license terms that you can find on the content to see if you have the necessary permission (for example, if it is licensed under a Creative Commons license then you may). Alternately, you need to find the owner of the content and ask for permission, which they may grant upon payment of a license fee.

Marketing campaigns and spam

When you engage in online marketing, you need to understand the laws that regulate spam. Read how you can avoid spamming others here.

Using social media or third party platforms or tools

If you are thinking of using a third party platform or tools, perhaps as part of your social media strategy or to set up your payment gateway, it is important to review the terms and conditions of use of that platform or tool and its privacy policy. These are usually accessible via a link at the bottom of the page. Reviewing these policies lets you know what your rights and obligations are in using the site but also the terms that you are asking of your customers, supporters, donors and community members if they engage with you via those sites.

Engaging with customers, supporters and donors through social media

Social media offer the benefits of informal, real-time and more direct and honest engagement with your customers, supporters and donors. However, they can also raise legal issues precisely because of such instantaneous and immediate communication. Sometimes people do not think carefully before they type, post, publish, tweet or share. Sometimes people want to shock or vent. Generally, the courts hold that the usual laws against defamation, hate speech, offensive conduct apply equally to an online world as they do in the offline world.

Your organisation should think about how it will respond or manage this issue when developing a strategy to engage in social media. If you host an interactive space you should consider developing a moderation policy.

Legal resources

You may wish to minimise your legal risks by consulting with a lawyer before drafting or accepting any legal terms relating to your online activities, for example when engaging a website developer or other service provider. These sites will help you begin the search for a suitable lawyer:

• Law Council of Australia
• Arts Law Centre of Australia
• Findlaw Australia