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I am putting together a privacy policy and terms of use for a new website. is it ok to use existing policies found on the internet and modify as appropriate or would their be copyright issues?
Optional Information: State/Country relating to question: California Already Tried: Internet research
Generally such writings are not protected by copyright because they are not original and creative enough....however, it is always a good idea to make some changes and not copy verbatim, because sometimes things like privacy policies or TOU are entitled to "thin" (i.e. weak) copyright protection which protects them from exact, verbatim copying. So the botXXXXX XXXXXne is that you should never copy any writing exactly, always make changes, because even rather mundane materials could be protected by a thin copyright and its not worth the risk, much easier to make some changes.
Experience: Experienced in intellectual property law