[AMA Request] Someone who writes the Terms of Service for video games, software etc...

I've been involved in the process of writing and editing together with attorneys terms of service and privacy policy in small video game projects, but I'm not willing to verify myself and I'm not a lawyer myself so I guess I don't qualify for an AMA. Still I can answer some stuff:

Do you ever feel like your job is redundant?

Writing legalese is not redundant in the way you think it is. It's understood that normal people will usually never read it, but you don't approach this as something "creative" or feel "bummed out" when people don't read your work. It's more something you do because it's required by law, work that needs to be done to carry on doing the things that matter. It's a little bit like cleaning your toilet, nobody is going to care, nobody is going to give you a medal, but you have to do it, so you do.

Do you ever add random phrases or alike knowing that no one will probably ever find it?

Nope. You could probably get away adding an easter egg or two, but most people prefer to approach this strictly as law complying document and nothing more, because one misformulated or incorrect clause can back fire very easily in court.

You your write everything yourself, or do you copy paste a lot of "standard" information?

This I think varies a lot from company to company and lawyer to lawyer, but from my experience it's 50/50. You look at what others in the same are of business are writing for inspiration, but then formulate it on your own to make sure it matches the requirements of the specific business.

Is this your only task, or do you do anything else in addition?

I've never met somebody whose job was specifically and exclusively writing TOSes. Usually like I mentioned these things are written by attorneys, and you can guess that an attorney at a video game company deals with more than just writing and keeping up-to-date the TOS.

/r/IAmA Thread