Overhaul Terms & Conditions?

This piece in iMedia should probably have been titled “Why it’s time to overhaul Terms & Conditions,” but my editor took liberties. 

The length of time we spend wrangling over terms and conditions on each media buy tends to ebb and flow like the tide.  As market conditions change, buyers and sellers clash over things like the notice required for cancellation, payment terms and such.  That’s bound to happen and I’m not sure we’ll be able to do too much about it.

Then there are the problems that have more to do with the IAB/AAAA Standard Terms and Conditions v2.0 being out of date.  Those are things I think we need to address.  Issues like data privacy, how custom ad units and sponsorships ought to be paid for, and how we deal with adjacency to objectionable content are all things that need addressing but are not addressed adequately by standard Ts & Cs.

At some point, you begin to look back at the IAB/AAAA document and ask whether or not it’s delivering the time savings it promised.  If the answer is anywhere between “maybe” and “no,” it’s time for an overhaul.