Legal Issues  «Prev  Next»

Lesson 1

Legal Issues of Web Site Creation

This module will discuss the technical aspects of Web site creation and certain legal issues. If nothing else, you should familiarize yourself with two important legal concepts. First, it is important for you to understand how to protect your site and your rights to its content from being violated.
Second, it is equally important for you to know how to avoid violating the rights of someone else's site. In essence, you need to learn how copyrights, trademarks, privacy, and "terms of use" statements legally protect your work as well as that of others.
After completing this module, you will be able to:
  1. Identify material that qualifies to be copyright protected, and identify the elements of a copyright notice
  2. Determine whether using someone else's work is permitted under fair use
  3. Create an expressed license
  4. Register a copyright
  5. Distinguish between trademarks and service marks
  6. Register a trademark
  7. Describe how and when to use privacy policies and "terms of use" statements
  8. Describe international copyright and trademark law issues


Procedural and Substantive law

The Internet has transformed every branch of procedural and substantive law and thus every lawyer needs a basic understanding of Internet Law. For those lawyers, law students, policymakers, and members of the business community who are or will be involved in e-commerce, information security, or high technology law, it is important to have some basic understanding of the relevant cases and statutes relevant to Internet Law. This module distills the main contours of settled Internet law as well as areas that are still evolving. This section focused upon the legal rules that govern the development of U.S. law but nearly every chapter also covers foreign and international law developments. The goal is to provide the reader with a succinctexposition of basic concepts and method for each procedural and substantive branch of law including foreign and international law developments. This module covers global developments such as the European Union's right to be forgotten in the proposed General Data Protection Regulation mandatory EU consumer law, as well as international intellectual property decisions. One of the central themes of this module is that lawyers of the twenty-first century must master global Internet law developments to represent online businesses in a cross-border legal environment.

Ad Legal Issues

e-businesses use a Borderless Internet

As e-businesses use the borderless Internet, they will increasingly become subject to foreign procedural and substantive law. The U.S. business community, for example, needs legal audits for its websites sales and services whenever it targets European consumers. Websites that collect personally identifiable information need to comply with the General Data Protection Regulation even if they are not physically headquartered in Europe. In contrast, foreign websites may be required to appear in U.S. courts if they infringe the rights of U.S. companies. The Internet is interconnected and transnational, challenging traditional sovereignty based upon geographic borders. No transnational sovereign devises uniform rules for Internet jurisdiction and the enforcement of online judgments. The lack of certainty about the law of cyberspace requires cross-border treaties and conventions. To date, the countries connected to the Internet have not agreed to cede their sovereignty in order to harmonize cyber-jurisdictional rules. Instead, courts adapt their own national rules to determine jurisdiction. Many of the chapters address European Commission regulations, directives and conventions as well as domestic Internet law developments from foreign jurisdictions. The organization of this module summarizes many of the cases and statutes taught in e-commerce, Internet law, or cyberspace law courses.
In the next lesson, you will learn about copyright protection and the parts of a copyright notice.

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