E-Commerce Law & Policy

Volume: 2 Issue: 8
(August 2000)

News

The battle between the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and Napster, the music swapping website, awaits its next stage. / read more

The UK Data Protection Commission has warned that companies who satisfy the provisions of the UK Department of Trade & Industry’s draft regulations under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act will not necessarily satisfy the Data Protection legislation. / read more

US market research company Harris Interactive has heavily criticised and launched legal action against MAPS, the Mail Abuse Prevention System, a California based anti-spam organisation, who it contends unfairly and arbitrarily placed Harris Interactive on its Realtime Blackhole List (RBH), a list of companies accused of electronic mail abuse. / read more

Features

Self regulation has long been the holy mantra for the net. Instead of cumbersome, slow moving, out of date court hearings, a fast efficient and equitable system for resolving issues should be put in place by net users. / read more

The recent case of Euromarket Designs Inc v Peters and another in the UK High Court before Jacob J reinforces the view that jurisdiction on the Internet can be a difficult issue for Plaintiffs. / read more

Linking is the backbone of the world wide web; the fundamental notion upon which the world wide web is based. It is the means by which finding information relevant to your topic is made easier. In its most simple form, the owner of a website has the addresses of other related websites on his website and the reader may call up those web pages by clicking on that link. The links are the websites’ bibliographies; a vast cross referencing system. / read more

This article is about the competition law implications of business to business (B2B) exchanges. Competition laws control anti-competitive conduct, actions by organisations with substantial market power and mergers which create competitive strength. Such laws are widespread throughout the developed economic world. Breaches involve significant penalties including regulatory investigation, substantial fines and sometimes criminal penalties. B2B exchanges raise a number of sensitive competition issues in novel and, sometimes, unexpected ways. The issues are sensitive not because they cannot be solved but because the solutions can harm commercial needs or block other potential revenue streams. Investors and planners of B2B exchanges need to understand the potential for competition risk so that it can be balanced against other commercial needs. / read more

Recently published stories concerning the demise of Internet start-ups show that the predictions about prospects for the liquidation of many e-businesses have become reality. Inevitably one of the issues upon liquidation concerns the disposal of assets of the failed company. One such asset, and one that is particularly valuable in the virtual world, is the list of customers of the failed business. Access to such customers’ information is extremely valuable - these are people who are generally wealthier than the average person and they have shown willingness to trade online. Ideally liquidators would like to be free to realise maximum value from the sale of this asset. However, the Data Protection Act 1988 may effectively scupper any such attempts. / read more

Debates about legal questions relating to the Internet appear to be staged in Germany as the confrontation of two different camps. Protagonists of the new medium postulate that the Internet requires a new and different approach of the legal system to the emerging phenomena of the net. Those disputing this approach are easily regarded as hopelessly old-fashioned lawyers impeding and impairing the economic opportunities with B2B- and B2C-innovations. / read more

The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (the Act) received Royal Assent on 28 July and is expected to come into force in October this year. The Act regulates the surveillance and interception of communications. / read more

Netspionage is a word that has developed in the Internet age for the theft of confidential information by hackers, to sell to a competitor or to use for their own business exploits. Espionage was originally limited to governments, but with the information age, the rise of corporate espionage has been rapid. According to recent surveys, losses suffered through misappropriation of computerised intellectual property cost copyright owners close to $20 billion last year. / read more

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About E-Commerce Law & Policy:

The monthly law journal giving authoratitive insights into all aspects of e-commerce law and regulations affecting online business, including domain names, Intellectual property, copyrights, online advertising, behavourial advertising, cloud computing, net neutrality, privacy, cybercrime, social media, trademarks, online sales, licensing and software / read more