Is it legal to copy a website's terms of use?

Question

I was wondering if it's legal to copy a website's "Terms of Use" policy, and then use it on your own website?

Answer 1

If a website's TOS has restrictions against unauthorized copying and use of anything in the site, that applies to the TOS, too.

Chances are, no one will do a Google search on the exact text of their TOS to find if someone has copied it; but who knows? If they paid a legal service to draft a very specific and original TOS, they may be concerned with others copying it illegally.

Beyond that, their TOS is a legal document. Your TOS is a legal document. Your users sign a contract when they click and accept. If you copy and paste a TOS, and don't understand exactly what is in it, and you and your users are bound by that TOS, what kind of legal risks do you open yourself up to?

A simple Google search yields https://formswift.com/terms-of-service among others. Or try one of the many services like LegalZoom.