PUBLIC POLICY LEGAL ISSUES AND PRIVACY LEARNING UNIT
PUBLIC POLICY – LEGAL ISSUES AND PRIVACY LEARNING UNIT 9
Outcomes • List and describe the major legal issues related to e-commerce • Identify and understand the difficulties or protecting privacy
Think about this…… Laws are enforced by Country Governments…… You have to adhere to laws of your country…… Does the internet belong to a country? Who’s laws do you follow for e-commerce? How does it work?
The need for internet law • The internet being a new phenomenon is not as regulated as it should be. • International trade is something that happens daily, but the sheer volume of international trade on the internet is HUGE. • The internet system allows for people to do trade in all different countries, and it is impossible to adhere to all the countries laws… • Thus, internet law is needed to harmonise ecommerce in the future.
• These laws would need updating to cope with the uniqueness of the internet…. • The solution: • Multilateral agreements on provisions that govern the internet. • Must be developed in cohesion with the United Nations and the World Trade Organisations.
Issues in the legal environment • • • Figure 11. 1 p. 303 ……. . Jurisdiction Privacy Contract law Intellectual property rights, patents, copyright and trademarks • Delict law • Defamation and advertising
Contract law and the internet • Contract: When two parties agree on a course of action usually specifying a set of obligations to each other. • Contract consists of: ▫ Offer: an invitation to enter into an agreement ▫ Counter offer: If the recipient of the agreement attempts to alter the terms of the agreement.
Example…. • In e-commerce it is assumed that: if you send an email to someone making an offer, the person you send it to must them pose a letter of acceptance of the contract. You reply email on an offer is your proof of accepting the offer. • Firms have to send email confirmations of transactions. • Woolworths’ e-tailing facility: www. inthebag. co. za sends out these confirmations for all orders received to ensure there are no miscommunications with customers.
…. . Contract law and the internet • The contract Act, also allow consumers what is called a…. . “Cooling off period” This allows consumer to cancel any transactions and related credit card agreement for the supply of goods within SEVEN (7) days of the conclusion of the transaction. Consumers don’t have to give a reason for cancellation and may not receive penalties, but do have to pay for costs for returning the merchandise to the seller.
Info to provide to potential customers buying online from your company • • • Trade name, legal status, and physical address Code of conduct Organisation members Product descriptions Prices Manner of payments Terms of agreement Time taken for delivery to arrive Refund policy Security procedures and privacy policy
Intellectual property rights “IPRs” IPR’s = Are rights that treat intangible information –based goods as physical property, by creating ownership rights for these goods. Example: A new computer game is different from other games, and the owner spends years to develop the game. The owner is thus entitled to have exclusive ownership of these goods particularly with respect to replicating them. IPR’s = protect intangible information
IPR protection No 1: Copyright • Copyright act of South Africa protects: ▫ Literary (written) ▫ Musical & ▫ Artistic works ▫ Thus all written (literary) information on the internet falls under copyright. ▫ Think about this: Copy and Paste, without referencing……. . ?
But what if I just browse the internet? Is that legal? • Browsing the internet is legal if the user has a licence and adheres to the terms of the licence. • There is no breach if the author’s moral rights are respected, for example, the author must be cited if his work is referred to. • No protection is afforded for material that is against public morals, for example: Child pornography
Linking and Framing • Linking is when users can jump from one site to another by means of hyperlinks, this is not seen as illegal, although one page takes you to another. • Framing is when the user can read a second site, while still on the first website. You need to ask for permission to do framing from the intended website. Respect other companies sites.
IPR protection No 2: Trademarks • Trademarks are: ▫ ▫ ▫ ▫ Marks Names Symbols Logo’s Colours, Designs Or a combination of the above that distinguish goods and services in the marketplace.
Trademark act • Protection will be granted for a trademark after a search has been done to determine if the mark is already in use. • If a trademark is infringed, the owner may be awarded damages. • This law stays the same for general commerce and e-commerce.
IPR protection No 3: Domain Names • Domain names: Suffixes (abbreviations) in website addresses that indicate domicile and type of entity. • ac = academic institution www. tuks. ac. za • co or com = commercial enterprise. www. woolworths. co. za • Edu = educational institution • org = Organisation www. arivealive. org. za
Cyber -squatting • This is a phenomenon that emerged due to domain names. • Individuals anticipated that other companies (usually large companies) would want domain addresses in their countries, • These individuals pre-empted registration names for example Mc. Donalds, and later sold these back to the large companies. • This practice is now regulated
Read Case Study p. 325 • Southafrica. com • Very good example of cyber-squatting
IPR protection No 4: Patents • Patents = Personal property rights crated by legislation to protect inventions for a fixed period (20 years) to enable the creator to recover development costs. • Patent thicket: A dense web of overlapping IPR’s that a company must hack its way through in order to actually commercialise new technology.
DIFFICULTY OF PROTECTING PRIVACY We will be studying the following parts: • Consumer protection • Consumer Privacy • Protection of children • Promotion of social problems • Digital divide • The internet and information goods • Solutions to online piracy
CONSUMER PROTECTION • This is mainly about contradictory practices in other words companies not delivering what the promise, particularly about PRIVACY • Also concerned about ethical practices. • Unfair and deceptive trade practices: ▫ Unsubstantiated advertising claims (false advertising) ▫ False endorsements ▫ Omitted (left out) information ( not telling the whole truth)
CONSUMER PRIVACY • the right to be left alone” • Consumers need to determine who acquires their personal information, how it is used and when others can intrude on their personal environment. • There is three major dimensions to this: ▫ Awareness ▫ Control ▫ Ownership ▫ It has to be respected !
CONSUMER PRIVACY • This is mostly left up to the business’s own discretion with regards to laws. • It becomes a ethical rather than legal issue. • “opt-out” method: Consumers have to find the privacy clause and de-select themselves from data collection methods. • “opt-in” method: Consumers give permission for their data to be collected. Far more ethical don’t you think?
PROTECTION OF CHILDREN • Kids are very vulnerable on the internet: to marketers and individuals with criminal intent, adult and illicit content and to paedophiles. • Child websites: offer prizes, games, opportunities to chat to “stars” under the condition that they complete forms giving out private information. • Kids do not realise the power of the internet with their information and companies are using kids to gather valuable information.
• Marketers deceive kids on websites, they play games not knowing that they were actually involved in advertising. • Marketers must use what is called a “separator” which informs kids that programmes are ending and advertisements are beginning. On tv this is known as ad-breaks. • Pornography – big issue. Internet service providers must make parents aware that kids can have access to sites. • Chat rooms: Girls chatting with “older men”… • A study showed: 25% of youth had been exposed to pornography online involuntarily.
PROMOTION OF SOCIAL PROBLEMS • Addiction to pornography is a big problem, as the ease of access to this imagery has caused social problems. • It causes household problems…. . It affects people lives negatively. • Online gambling is another problem…. Laws with regards to this is also enforced. Age restrictions, etc. • Alcohol and tobacco advertising is also regulated online – but it is difficult to enforce this, as the website does not have to be based in that country………
DIGITAL DIVIDE • Digital divide is represented as ta divide between information technology (ITC) “haves” and “have-nots” • Developing nations view the internet as a means to provide their citizens with access to global markets. • From Anglo American it is a perspective of creating access to more commerce, it wants to benefit the poor Third World countries which is extremely limited.
… Digital divide • In plain simple words: • There is a huge digital divide in the world. Some countries use e-commerce effectively to their advantage, some countries and or areas in countries don’t even have telephone lines. • So this is a huge problem…. The digital divide is very big. • A lot of people are computer literate, but a lot aren't.
… digital divide • The internet isn’t waiting for the digital divide to narrow, it is developing at its own speed. • Please need to be educated better with regards to this digital divide, so that it can be utilized better for the future.
The Internet and Information goods • The internet exerts three powerful effects on information goods: ▫ 1. Distribution efficiencies: ▫ The internet permits distribution of digital content at virtually no cost. Thus producers can save substantial costs via digital distribution. ▫ Example: It doesn’t cost to add an attachment to an email, it is free. Thus free document delivery.
2. Unbundling • Music, magazines, newspapers and even books can be divided into smaller units such as individual songs, articles and chapters. • Digital format makes it easy for users to select the units they want, and then have cost effective distribution take place. • Example: online newspapers example: www. pretorianews. co. za, don’t ask people to pay to read the newspaper. • The internet is basically advocates “Free Content”
3. Illicit copying • Digital format allows for perfect copies of information. • Example: music can be downloaded and “burned” to a CD in a few minutes. • This encourages many users to copy the material freely rather than pay for it. • You can find copies of books, movies and music on various locations over the internet. • Not even encryptions and password can protect information or music.
Additional effects of the internet on information goods • Digital content copied form the physical carriers, creates a fundamental change in product characteristics • Ease of unbundling and re-bundling of info goods • Greater control over the customer experience – some argue that MP 3’s have improved the relationship between artists and fans • Heightened focus on value added information in information processing tasks.
Solutions to online piracy 1. Enforcing copyright The legal system has to restrain this. Latest estimate of piracy costs to the music industry is $4, 3 billion. Fines are given out for up to $12 000, but it is difficult to pursue everyone with regards to this.
Solutions to piracy 2. Spoofing Record companies attempt to discourage free downloads by dispersing MP 3 files that disrupt users’ machines. This is called a spoof. It contain relatively harmless such as Trojan Horse, which redirects the user to websites where they can legitimately obtain the music. But is then invasion of privacy? ? ? ?
Digital rights management (DRM) • A set of digital codes that prevent copying of digital content. • Not a lot of success has been achieved with this. • More investment into DRM in terms of hardware is needed, which costs a lot of money • This is not so viable for companies currently.
The end
- Slides: 38