My involvement with electronic commerce (e-commerce) and the law stared short before this paper was conceived last night. While it is hard to pinpoint when my interest involving legal issues of e-commerce actually began, I can say with confidence that my interest was piqued by the time I entered this College of Management at NSYSU. As I have been continuing my teaching of the law, I found more and more pieces of e-mail addressed to me that began with a variation of the phrase, “I know you are a law professor; could you please give me your answers to the following issues?” Very often, this kind of e-mail would go on to describe an interesting “hypothetical situation” involving computer-mediated communication, and would conclude with a request for legal analysis.

Much to my dismay, my response too often included the phrase, “I will have to research that.” And this is the case now. Yesterday afternoon, I was told by the organizers of this ICCM2000 that I would have a chance to discuss legal issues of e-commerce today. I am happy to meet all of you, and to tell you, “Recently, the greatest challenge to a professor standing between law and business has been the rise of this on-line world,” including the phrase, “I will have to research that.”

Bridging the On-line and Off-line Worlds: Law and E-commerce
A complex legal system is one of the characteristics (we may call it the price) of a large and highly structured society. In a commercial society like Taiwan, the law is a prevalent part of daily life. However, it is somewhat surprising that, despite the wealth of general legal material available, there is little out there that covers the topics of computer telecommunications from the user’s perspective. While some excellent treatises and articles on the subject of computer telecommunications do exist, they are often too technical to be of real value to the lay person of the law, or they address the issues from a different perspective, for example, that of the system operator, or the government. More attempts are needed for this topic on legal issues of e-commerce.

In fact, for management education today some of the more frequently encountered legal questions have been found: “What legal recourse do I have if someone has intercepted and read my private electronic mail without my consent?” “What sort of trouble can I get into for having downloaded a risque computer graphic file?” “Who owns the copyright to the message I just posted on a bulletin board?”

Indeed, for the members of the on-line world who have little or no legal training, more works providing answers to the question above, and legal issues of e-commerce as well, will be much useful and helpful.

Issues Covered

So far there have been addressed in the legal community a wide range of legal issues that a user is likely to encounter on-line.

1. Electronic Privacy
The issue of electronic privacy has been the most often discussed. A proper legal treatise on this issue must deal with a wide range of topics, including the use of “handles,” encryption, and lawsuits that arise when privacy is infringed. The bulk of such a treatise shall be dedicated to a discussion of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) in many countries– a statute of great importance to the on-line world.

2. The Virtual Marketplace: Business Transactions on the Net
Another issue has been on business transaction in the on-line world, and has been discussed around the traditional principles of contract law. These principles are discussed and then applied to a telecommunications setting. A legal treatise related often ends with a brief discussion of acceptable use policies, caller contracts, and the use of credit cards over the network.

3. Intellectual Property in Cyberspace
Copyright law in a new on-line world has to be addressed sooner or later. Many legal researches have provided the reader a basic overview of copyright law and then applied the law discussed to cyberspace. From such a writing skill, these papers have widely explored issues such as who owns electronic mail, the legality of reposting messages on bulletin boards, and the transfer of software through cyberspace.

4. Harmful and Dangerous Words and the Media Management
Nonetheless, another issues deals with the media and law, and the application of related statutes thereof to on-line activities. So far many legal treatises have addressed such topics as censorship by system operators, defamation, and freedom of the press. For example, in the United States of America, many lawyers often discuss the interaction between the cases using harmful and dangerous words in cyberspace and the First Amendment of the Constitution, such as freedom of speech and freedom of the press.

5. Adult Material
How to deal with adult material in the on-line world is closely related to the issue just aforementioned. This issue concerns itself with sexually explicit material, especially with a core question – how to draw the line between the legal and illegal material? For this drawing debate, the classification of adult material and legal categories responsible have to be explored in order to offer advice on the legality of transactions involving each.

6. Cyber-Crimes
Nowadays, the cyberspace has been full of pitfalls for the unwary traveler, thus, another important issue shall cover “cyberspace-crimes”. Most legal treatises deal with state criminal laws that regulate on-line activities. From credit card fraud to computer viruses, many topics have been examined recently under the positive laws related. For instance, up to the 1990s, in the United States of America, there have been found The Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Transportation of Obscene Matter for Sale or Distribution (18 U.S.C. §1465), Obscene or Harassing Telephone Calls (7 U.S.C. §223), Federal Child Pornography Statute, State Child Pornography Statutes, The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, The Texas Computer Crime Law, State Computer Crime Laws, … and so on

Because of the wide variety of potential legal issues posed by cyberspace, this discussion has only covered those issues that are likely to be most explored to on-line legal cases. Indeed, to those researchers for the e-commerce today, the most difficult parts in their works have been the connection of explaining every doctrine of traditional contract law and applying it to the on-line world.

How to Response to?
1/ There has been a strong need for analysis of the legal issues of e-commerce. But, how to response to it?
2/ There has been no single source to which many people in e-commerce can turn for this analysis. And, how to response to it? 3/ There has been no working mechanism bridging the cyberspace, business and law in the business education at this stage. And, how to set up it?

(Thank you.)