Legal question about form builders and website builders
If someone uses a form builder/website builder to sell illegal products/services, would the service provider face legal action for facilitating the sale, given that the terms of service prohibit any illegal activity ? This is a major concern for me running or starting such services as an indie hacker.
In the USA normally the service providers are not liable for the content if they were unaware of it. There are frameworks like DMCA to give an opportunity for the service provider for the service to remove the offending content. In some jurisdictions, like India, this is not the case. There service providers are liable for the content. A famous case is when CEO of eBay India was arrested for illegal content in the marketplace.
I have a form builder at https://www.formtools.com. There are criminals use it for phishing some times. The site gets in trouble with Google and upstream providers when it happens.
I am operating from India. Even amazon gets into trouble for content that people find offensive. I guess if we run such services we would have to monitor all forms /sites and the data users collect every 2-3 days if not everyday. Thanks for your viewpoint!
It's your responsibility to frame the terms and conditions of the company that shows how irresponsible the company will be in such legal issues.
It generally goes like this
When you use our company products / service it is deemed that you agree to our terms and conditions.
You agree to use the company products / service for business / personal activities that fall under legal boundaries. If the company's product/ services are used for activities that falls outside the legal boundaries , then the resultant / damage due to activities is not the responsibility of company or it's associates like employees , founders , affiliates , partners, investors, shareholders and others.
This is not legal advice but, you have a responsibility to take actions against such behavior and collaborate with authorities when they are asking information about the users. The details depend on which country you are operating. But generally speaking, if you collaborate, you won't get legal charges based on user missbehavior, but there are corner cases that a good lawyer can handle.
Thanks for the insight!