Chapter 7: Class Notes

Ethical & Tax Issues in Electronic Commerce

Why is this Important:
1. E-Commerce = cross-border international business
2. E-commerce = fast & efficient communications
3. E-commerce = customer contact is interactive
4. E-commerce = promotes C2C interactions (social networking features / discussion boards to discuss products)

**all are affected by legal issues (defamation, slander)

Jurisdiction
Legal Issues:
Geographic-Legal Relationship :
- power: do they have the power to enforce the law? (regular business)
- effects: Impact - by doing business in a certain area
- legitimacy : if you are under the laws of the province, you should have some say in how those laws are forming (voting)
- notice : know what laws you are under in different areas
** don't work for e-commerce : who's jurisdiction takes over when two ppl from different countries go through with a contract

Contractual Jurisdiction
- subject-matter jurisdiction : is its a federal law, then fed's have jurisdiction
- personal jurisdiction : residence: jurisdiction determined by where the customer lives and where you live
- conflict of laws: whos jurisdition do you fall under?

Contratual Enforcement
- What is a contract? : legally binding arrangement, when somebody has provided an offer and someone on the other side has accepted it and consideration is paid (product or money)
- written contracts : some places have a minimum in which a written contract is not required: now we have the ability to digitally sign contracts
- warranties & disclaimers : warrant that the good is in operable condition and it works - the customer will be delivered as per what they ordered
- authority to bing and form contracts : because you cannot see anyone, how do you trust them to get into a contract with them

International Commerce
Culture and Customers :
Treaties (judical comity)

Income & Sales Tax Implications
State use tax
internet tax moratorium : no one can enforce any additional tax from e-commerce (only user tax)


Intellectual Property
Copyright : massive issue on the internet right now - legal right to ownership of creative works - anything original - all rights reserved

Fair Use : exemptions for using
Purpose of use : is your purpose to resell this thing?
Nature of Work : is this stuff that has already been published or is it original?
Amount Used : there is a maximum amount that can be used before copyright laws affect it
Market Impact : by using someone else's work, are you affecting them from gaining profit?

Creative Commons : (cc): your ability as the author of a work to specify who has the right to do something with that work - allowing you to find the middle ground - some rights are reserved
Patents (inventions & processes) : legally structured
Trademarks and service marks

Domain Names & Cybersquatting: registered a domain name just because someone else might want it
Anti-cybersquatting consumer protection act
iCANN UDRP Domain Name dispute proceedings

Defamation & Deceptive Practices

Digital Watermarking & Copy Control

Web Disclosures
Terms of Service
Acceptable Use policies :
Conditions of use
user agreements
** have same purpose
EXAMPLE: GOogle, Paypal

Privacy Policy
Personal Information
- what data is collected?
- how securely is it protected?
- how will my data be used/shared?
- can i restrict the use of my data?
- how do i update my data?
- what is i am a child?
- can i contact you?