Official "Terms of Service" Advice & Review Post

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

As an artist, it is critical to have a good Terms of Service. One that includes both your rights as the artist and the customer's rights in relation to your transaction. Not only does this educate your customers on how the process works and what to expect from it, but it protects both of you in case something goes wrong.

In our official T.O.S. discussion post, we discussed what to include in a Terms of Service, what constituted good terms, and what were questionable, shady, or downright illegal terms.

Now, artists, here's your chance to post your T.O.S. for critique. Don't know how to word a particular point you're trying to convey? Want to make sure your T.O.S. is fair for you and your customers? Need to make sure you didn't leave any gigantic loopholes? Link your T.O.S. here, and members can give you their advice.

This post can also be used to discuss any other questions that you have on your mind regarding how to build a T.O.S., maintain a good T.O.S. and how to make sure your clients read and agree to your T.O.S.

Before you post, please read through the previous T.O.S. discussion and maybe even the examples in the last T.O.S. post, apply what you learn there to your T.O.S., and then link your revised T.O.S. here for help polishing up. Please do not post a half-finished T.O.S. and ask folks to rewrite it for you. Be prepared for honest critique!

Comments

[nowayne.livejournal.com]

hm... i think that "Should I decide to to use your commission for the aforementioned purposes, I will contact you in advance to let you know in case you later decide to purchase exclusive rights to the work" is already covered by the sentences preceding it. you have already made it clear what your expectations are. brevity is important.

it feels like "I reserve the right to recycle any sketches or preparatory works rejected by the client for other commissions or personal works" should be in the artist's rights section though.

the rest of it seems long, but i'm not really sure how to condense it because i don't know exactly what is most important to you. to give an example of a tos i find appealing in length, i commented on germanchoclates' up there. slightly longer but not too wordy also is celestinaketzia's upthread a ways. i just heavily recommend condensing where at all possible to make things easier on people who want to throw money at you.

[itsamellama.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I guess I got a little into "did i cover all the bases"-mode too much. I'll check those TOS's out! Thanks so much for your input, and I'll definitely give my TOS a good 2-3 or more condensing/editing passes.

EDIT: Whew! Edited it with your suggestions. I think it looks a lot better though can still be distilled or re-organized, maybe? I took out some stuff that I felt overcomplicated things for myself too. It's refreshing!