ethical, social and political issues

7/28/2019 Ethical, Social and Political Issues

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Ethical, Social and Political

issues in E-Commerce


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Legal Issues Versus Ethical Issues

Ethics:The branch of philosophy thatdeals with what is considered to be right

and wrong

What is unethical is not necessarily illegal

Ethics are supported by commonagreement in a society as to what is rightand wrong, but they are not subject to legalsanctions


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Businesses that fail to adhere to ethicalstandards will suffer some consequences

including:

a damaged reputation

long-term loss of trust that can result in loss of

business.


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Major ethical/legal issues

Privacy

Intellectual property rights

Free speech versus censorship

Consumer and merchant protection against

fraud


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EC ethical issues

Non-work-related use of the Internet

Employees use e-mail and the Web

for non-work-related purposes

The time employees waste while

surfing non-work-related Web sites

during working hours is a concern


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Make sure that Web content and activitycomply with the laws in other countries

Make sure that the companys Web content

policy is consistent with other company

policies

Appoint someone to monitor Internet legal

and liability issues

Have attorneys review Web content to makesure that there is nothing unethical, or illegal,

on the companys Web site


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Privacy:The right to be left alone andthe right to be free of unreasonablepersonal intrusions

1. The right of privacy is not absolute.Privacy must be balanced against theneeds of society

2. The publics right to know is superior tothe individuals right of privacy


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Consumer privacy is becoming the most publicized

security issue replacing theft and fraud as top concernsin e-commerce.

Without trust, most prudent business operators and

clients may decide to forgo use of the Internet andrevert back to traditional methods of doing business.


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Collecting information about individuals

over the Internet:

By reading an individuals newsgroup

postings

By looking up an individuals name and

identity in an Internet directory

By reading an individuals e-mail


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By conducting surveillance on employees

By wiretapping wireline and wirelesscommunication lines and listening toemployees

By asking an individual to complete a Website registration

By recording an individuals actions as theynavigate the Web with a browser, usuallyusing cookies


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Web site registration Most B2C and marketing Web sites ask

visitors to fill out registration forms

including:

names

addresses

phone numbers

e-mail addresses

hobbies, etc.


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There are few restraints on the ways in

which the site can use this information

Use it to improve customer service or its

own business

Or sell the information to another

company that could use it in aninappropriate or intrusive manner


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Privacy of employees Monitoring employees e-mail and Web

activities

wasting time may disclose trade secrets

77% of companies monitor their

employees communications


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Protection of privacy

Notice/awareness

Choice/consent

Access/participation

Integrity/security

Enforcement/redress


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Opt-out clause:Agreement that requires

computer users to take specific steps to

preventcollection of information

Opt-in clause:Agreement that requires

computer users to take specific steps to

allowcollection of information


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Intellectual property:Creations of themind, such as inventions, literary andartistic works, and symbols, names,images, and designs used in commerce

Rights to intellectual property are easy toviolate on the Internet, resulting in billions

of dollars of losses to the owners of therights.


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Copyright protection approaches Using software to produce digital content

that cannot be copied

Cryptography

Tracking copyright violations

Digital watermarks:Unique identifiersimbedded in digital content that make itpossible to identify pirated works


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Societal Issues

Digital divide:The gap between those

who have and those who do not have the

ability to access electronic technology in

general, and the Internet and EC in

particular


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Other societal issues

Education

Virtual universities

Companies use the Internet to retrain employees

Home-bound individuals can get degrees


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Public safety and criminal justice

e-911 systems

collaborative commerce

e-procurement

e-governmentcoordinating, information

sharing, and expediting legal work and

cases

intelligent homes, offices, and publicbuildings

e-training of law enforcement officers


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Health aspects

safer and healthier to shop from home than

to shop in a physical store some believe that exposure to cellular

mobile communication radiation may cause

health problems

collaborative commerce can help improvehealth care


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Political: Power and influence of Government agencies and

regulatory bodies, public opinion, pressure groups, Internet

governance must device policies and enforce them.

Legal: Trading laws and restrictions, advertising standards

and controls, taxation laws must be implemented.

Consumer and merchant protection against fraud: The

success of E-Commerce depends on the protection provided

to consumers and merchants


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MP3.com, Napster, and

Intellectual Property Rights The Problem

Before the advent of the Web, people made

audiotape copies of music and videos to giveto friends and family or used them for theirown personal enjoyment

Such activities were ignored by the

producers, distributors, and artists who hadthe legal rights to the content


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Intellectual Property Rights (cont.)

MP3.com enabled users to listen to music

from any computer with an Internetconnection without paying royalties

Using peer-to-peer (P2P) technology,

Napster supported the distribution of

music and other digitized content among

millions of users


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MP3 and Napster claimed to be supporting

what had been done for years and were not

charging for their services

Popularity of MP3.com and P2P services

was too great for the content creators andowners to ignore


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To the creators and owners, the Web wasbecoming a vast copying machine

MP3.coms and Napsters services could

result in the destruction of many thousands

of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue


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The Solution

December 2000, EMusic (emusic.com) filed acopyright infringement lawsuit against

MP3.com

In 2001, Napster faced similar legal claims,

lost the legal battle, and was forced to payroyalties for each piece of music it

supportedNapster collapsedin October

2003 it reopened as for fee only


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Existing copyright laws were written for

physical, not digital, content

The Copyright Infringement Act states,

the defendant must have willfully

infringed the copyright and gained

financially The no financial gain loophole in the Act

was later closed


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Intellectual Property Rights (cont.) The Results

In 1997, the No Electronic Theft Act (NET)

was passed, making it a crime for anyone toreproduce and distribute copyrighted works

applied to reproduction or distributionaccomplished by electronic means

even if copyrighted products are distributedwithout charge, financial harm isexperienced by the authors or creators of acopyrighted work


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MP3.com suspended operations in April 2000

and settled the lawsuit

Napster suspended service and settled itslawsuits

tried to resurrect itself as an online music

subscription service with the backing of

Bertelsmann AG

filed for bankruptcy in June 2002

purchased by Roxio with plans to revive

Napster into a royalty-paying framework


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What we can learn

All commerce involves a number of legal,

ethical, and regulatory issues

EC adds to the scope and scale of these

issue

What constitutes illegal behavior versusunethical, intrusive, or undesirable

behavior?

ethical, social and political issues

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