Copyright © 2010 Certification Partners, LLC -- All Rights Reserved E-Commerce Specialist
Copyright © 2010 Certification Partners, LLC -- All Rights Reserved Lesson 2: Law and the Internet
E-Commerce Specialist Copyright © 2010 Certification Partners, LLC -- All Rights Reserved Lesson 2 Objectives Establish and protect a brand Identify legal and governmental aspects of e-commerce Identify and protect intellectual property Identify e-commerce taxation issues Avoid questionable practices Identify international trade laws
E-Commerce Specialist Copyright © 2010 Certification Partners, LLC -- All Rights Reserved Introduction to Internet Legal Issues Intellectual property rights –Brand ownership –Trademarks –Copyrights –Patents Crossing international boundaries –Jurisdiction Business ethics
E-Commerce Specialist Copyright © 2010 Certification Partners, LLC -- All Rights Reserved Electronic Publishing Sending copyrighted material to others Newsgroups and message boards Artistic representations Defamatory information
E-Commerce Specialist Copyright © 2010 Certification Partners, LLC -- All Rights Reserved Intellectual Property Issues Industrial property –Industrial designs –Inventions –Trademarks and service marks –International protection Copyrighted material –Literary works –Musical works –Artistic works –Photographic works –Audiovisual works –Software
E-Commerce Specialist Copyright © 2010 Certification Partners, LLC -- All Rights Reserved Areas of Liability Copyright, trademark and patent issues –Copyright term is described as follows: Private authors –70 years after author’s death Corporate authors –95 years after first publication or 120 years after creation (whichever is shorter) Privacy and confidentiality issues Jurisdictional issues
E-Commerce Specialist Copyright © 2010 Certification Partners, LLC -- All Rights Reserved Copyright, Trademark and Patent Issues United States copyright –Authors have exclusive rights to their own work for a limited time –Authors may transfer rights to their work Trademarks –"Any word, name, symbol or device, or any combination thereof, adopted and used by a manufacturer or merchant to identify his goods and distinguish them from those manufactured or sold by others" Patents –Protect inventions
E-Commerce Specialist Copyright © 2010 Certification Partners, LLC -- All Rights Reserved Privacy and Confidentiality Easy access to public information Marketing and databases Misuse of sensitive information
E-Commerce Specialist Copyright © 2010 Certification Partners, LLC -- All Rights Reserved Jurisdiction and Electronic Publishing Laws are territorial Cases have established jurisdictional precedent: –State of Minnesota vs. Granite Gate Resorts Methods for protecting a site against suits from other states: –Do not advertise that products are available nationwide if some jurisdictions could be expected to consider them illegal –Keep "interactivity" to a minimum
E-Commerce Specialist Copyright © 2010 Certification Partners, LLC -- All Rights Reserved Internet Taxation Internet Tax Freedom Act (ITFA) –Moratorium extended until 2006 Bit tax International tax Customs Tariffs
E-Commerce Specialist Copyright © 2010 Certification Partners, LLC -- All Rights Reserved Protecting a Brand Threats to a brand include: –Counterfeiting –Unauthorized use of logos –Domain name parodies –Misinformation –Rumors –Impostors
E-Commerce Specialist Copyright © 2010 Certification Partners, LLC -- All Rights Reserved Ethical Business Practices Questionable practices include: –Selling customer information without permission –Spamming –Spyware
E-Commerce Specialist Copyright © 2010 Certification Partners, LLC -- All Rights Reserved Lesson 2 Summary Establish and protect a brand Identify legal and governmental aspects of e-commerce Identify and protect intellectual property Identify e-commerce taxation issues Avoid questionable practices Identify international trade laws