Security of Business
Jurisdiction
As online commerce is claimed to be one of the least protected segments of the business market, protective measures should be introduced into online commerce to protect stakeholders and consumers of the online services and products. When some instances of violation of laws occur, this problem is usually considered in accordance with the laws of the country in which the crime was committed. However, the concept of the internet is an international issue and every time the crime is committed in terms of the online business issues or violation of right of companies or customers, certain measures should be taken.
As such, jurisdiction can be regarded as the right to resolve the problem in case of law violation. As suggested by Kohl (2007), “…jurisdiction in respect of criminal and other public law, it is customary international law which provides the source of the legal rules in question” (p. 6). Kohl (2007) analyzes jurisdiction in terms of laws, their violation, and laws that should be used to solve the problem.
The concept of jurisdiction is of primary importance when it comes to analysis of the situation and regulation of problems that occur in specific circumstances. For instance, “the US general jurisdiction rules resemble Articles 2 and 59 of the Brussels I regulation” (Wang, 2010, pp. 65-66).
In this respect, the jurisdiction concerns the right to regulate the problem and apply certain laws. However, as suggested by Wang (2010), issues related to online commerce should be regulated in accordance with acts and laws applicable to the international conventions and acts; in addition, each country that has companies that operate in the online business market, should adapt laws that resemble international regulations.
Copyright
Another concept that helps solve the problems occurring in the field of online commerce is the copyright which is used as a protective measure to guarantee safe market for companies and consumers of products and services. As Quénel (2004) defines, “Copyrights are a form of protection giving their owners the exclusive right to reproduce or use the intended work or to distribute copies of it, as well as to perform or display it publicly” (p. 6).
Copyright is one of the protective measures used in business. Violation of the copyright leads to criminal liability beared by the company or individual that has broken the rules of copyright. So, when the copyright is violated, the international regulations should be used to solve this problem and protect the copyright of the company in future.
Though copyright is not the only way to protect one’s right for business and specific business models and strategies used to succeed in certain field, it is one of the methods to regulate the stability of the market. For instance, if we launch a new website for selling popular skin and body care products to Asian college students, it is necessary to conduct a research on the market to allocate the products effectively without violation of other companies’ copyrights.
As suggested by Torremans (2010), it is necessary to review the national copyright laws with regard to the contract so that only appropriate copyright laws are applicable to the contract and no misunderstandings occur in case of violation of the copyright (pp. 62-63). Moreover, there are many companies that currently operate in the market of skin and body care products aimed at Asian segment of population.
Trademark and domain names
Trademarks are used to differentiate the company from other ones that operate in the same market and build the entire strategy along this concept. Some companies try to use other’s names though this can be considered as a violation if the company has a registered trademark and operates under it.
As Eaglesham (2001) claims, US Trademark and Patent Office reviews the companies that operate under different internet domains which do not reflect the essence of their business. For instance, “A new set of seven gTLDs has been sanctioned by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), including two -.biz and.info – with direct relevance for business” (Eaglesham, 2001, p. 12).
When the company operates as a website to sell skin and body care products, it should not take the domain.gov or.museum because it is not a governmental organization and it is not a museum either. As reported by Business/Technology Editors (2000), the decision to introduce a number of new domain extensions was made to make the internet clearer for people that are interested in specific issues. As such, different companies can choose the domain that fits their activities.
In this respect, the company that sells skin and body care products for Asian students should reflect its activity in the name of the company and its domain extension. For instance, it is possible to take the.biz extension as it is applicable to all businesses or the.info extension as it is applicable to non-commercial and commercial issues.
Privacy policies and protection
Privacy policies appear to be very important, especially if a customer provides personal information and wants to be sure that there would be no leakage. In case of selling skin and body care products to Asian students, the information should be organized in a clear way. As reported by Berendt et al. (2003), “To support the rich and service-dependent interaction users desire, PET should monitor third-party services … [and] record all interactions with all Web services, creating information-rich client-side profiles” (pp. 6-7).
These protection measures are necessary only if we provide our customers with membership discounts that require personal information that should be protected in accordance with the best privacy practices for online commerce.
As online commerce presupposes that a company sells products and provides services directly to consumers avoiding third parties, the privacy policies should be considered to protect the rights of the company and its customers if leakage of information or another problem occurs. Spiekermann et al. (2001) advocate the establishment of regulations for the entire world that operates with the help of internet resources.
As such, it is necessary to provide information to customers, collect information about customers, and ensure all data are properly protected with the help of technological measures and privacy policies common for all companies that operate in the e-commerce business. When an individual provides some personal information to the company, he/she expects this company has privacy policies and can protect the information in an appropriate manner.
As suggested by Spiekermann et al. (2001), privacy policies “need to be designed in such a way that they allow even moderately computer-literate online users to protect themselves from the degree of self-disclosure they are afraid of” (p. 9).
Contracts
A contract is an integral part of the company’s operation and maintenance. As such, “In order to accelerate the elimination of unnecessary paper and writing requirements, federal legislation modeled after Uniform Electronic Transactions Act (UETA) was enacted in 2000” (Winn & Wright, 2001, p. 5-3). In this respect, the company that sells skin and body care products through the online store should take into account the acts that were enacted and review the gaps so that every customer could enjoy the quality of provided goods and services. However, if some problems with the products occur, a customer should have an opportunity to complaint, get the compensation, or use other options available under the contract.
As the contracts should have specific requisites, the contracts for e-commerce undergone certain changes because the “contracts laws …of the United States are for most part based on the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC)” (Schwabach, 2006, p. 52) which means that they should include signatures. Moreover, the problem of signatures in online commerce contracts concerns cases when the company cooperates with other companies, manufacturers, and dealers.
Summary
The field of online commerce has great options for launching a website that would sell skin and body care products for Asian students. The website should have an appropriate domain extension so that it was recognizable and potential customers do not confuse it with educational sources and databases. Moreover, privacy policies and copyright should be considered for the website to ensure that no leakage of customers’ personal information occurs and no third party would violate its rights. The problem of contracts emerges when it comes to partnership and cooperation.
Reference List
Berendt, B., Günther, O., & Spiekermann, S. (2003). Privacy in e-commerce: Stated preferences vs. actual behavior. Communications of the ACM, 1-7. Web.
Business/Technology Editors. (2000). Register.com applauds ICANN’s approval of new domain extensions. Business Wire, 1.
Eaglesham, J. (2001). Online identity crisis: Website names: As cybersquatters move in, the latest set of domain names is in danger of descending into the same chaos that dogged the old one, writes Jean Eaglesham [London edition]. Financial Times, 12.
Kohl, U. (2007). Jurisdiction and the Internet: A study of regulatory competence over online activity. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Quénel, G. (2004). Managing the digital enterprise: Internet privacy & intellectual property. Web.
Schwabach, A. (2006). Internet and the law: technology, society, and compromises. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
Spiekermann, S., Grossklags, J., & Berendt, B. (2001). E-privacy in 2nd generation e-commerce: Privacy preferences versus actual behavior. Tampa, Florida: EC’01. Web.
Torremans, P. L. C. (2010). Respect for national copyright and copyright contract law? In Stamatoudi (Ed.), Copyright enforcement and the internet, 62-64. Frederick, MD: Kluwer Law International.
Wang, F. F. (2010). Internet jurisdiction and choice of law: Legal practices in the EU, US and China. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Winn, J. K., & Wright, B. (2001). The law of electronic commerce (4th ed.). Frederick, MD: Aspen Publishers Online.