Chapter 7: Key Concept

Chapter 7: The Environment of Electronic Commerce: Legal, Ethical, and Tax Issues



The Legal Enviro of E-Commerce

Borders and Jurisdiction:

Power: form of control obrt physical space and ppl and objects that reside in that space
Effects: impact of laws of persons behaviour
Legitimacy: idea that those subject to laws should have some role if formulating them
Notice: constructive notice: when people receive notice that they have become subjected to new laws and cultural norms when they cross international border


Jurisdiction of the Internet
- more difficult in the internet
- contract: promise or set of promises between 2 or more ppl. provides for exchange of value
- breach of contract: either party to contract does not comply with terms
Subject-Matter Jurisdiction: court's authority to decide particular type of dispute
Personal Jurisdiction: determined by residence of the parties
Jurisdiction in International Commerce: judicial comity: voluntarily enforce other countries aws or judgements out of a sense of comity or friendly civility

Contracting and Contract Enforcement in ECommerce
- implied contract: 2 or more parties act as if contract exists (even if no contract was written and signed)
Warranties on the web: warranty disclaimer: statement declaring that the seller will not honor some or all implied warranties
Terms of Service Agreements: site visitor is held to terms of service even is that visitor has not read the text or clicked a button to indicate agreement with the terms


Use and Protection of Intellectual Property in Online Business
- intellectual property: includes all products of human mind
Web Site Content Issues
Copyright information: right granted by gov't to author of work - right to print, publish or sell work
Patent Infringment: patent: exclusive right granted by gov't to individual to make, use and sell invention; business process patent: protects specific set of procedures for conducting particular business activity
Trademark Infringement: trademark: distinctive mark, devide, motto, a company affixes to the goods it produces for identification purposes; service mark: used to identify services provided; trade name: name business uses to identify itself; common law: part of british and us law established by history of court; statutory law: arises when elected legislative bodies pass laws


Domain Names, Cybersquatting, and Name Stealing
- cybersquatting: practice of registering a domain name that is trademark of another person or company in hopes that the owner will pay huge amounts of money to acquire the URL
- name changing: someone registers purposely misspelled variations of well-known domain names
- name stealing: someone posing as a site's administrator changes the ownership of site's assigned domain name to another site and owner


Protecting Intellectual Property Online
- digital watermark: digital code embedded in digital image of audio file
- copy control: electronic mechanism for limiting the number of copies that one can make of digital work


Defamation:
- statement that is false and that injures the reputation of another person or company
- product disparagement: if statement injures the reputation of product or service instead of a person


Deceptive Trade Practices
- trademark dilution: reductiong of distinctive quality of a trademark by alternative uses