Baby Steps For Conducting Business Online

This column will tell you everything you need to know to do business online and use computers in your business. An impossibility? You're right. But humor me as I cram in as much as I can.

To keep it interesting, I'll do this in the form of a true/false quiz, so you can test your own knowledge.

Copyright

Q: The Internet is public domain, and when you publish something on the Net, you lose your copyright.

A: false.

This is just one of those misconceptions that seems to have a life of its own. Laws of intellectual property, including copyright and trademark, apply as much online as off. The Net is just not the lawless Wild Wild West, so please get the idea out of your head.

Libel

Q: If you post a libelous statement on a Web site, you can't be sued for libel.

A: False ' and yet another example of a popular misconception.

Call someone a thief on the Internet or a magazine, and you'll get the same result: You'll be sued, unless, of course, the person is a thief. After all, truth is an absolute defense to libel, both online and off.

Contracting Online

Q: If you put a link on your site that reads, ”Terms and Conditions of Web site Use,” and links to a contract that governs the use of your site, the contract is enforceable even if the Web surfer never reads it.

A: If you said, ”true,” you were right ' more or less. I have to say it's more true than not, but this subject still causes controversy. While I think most courts would agree it's true, some courts may not. So be careful.

Although I think you're more likely to have a winner than a loser on this point, don't lose sight of the fact that this is a statistical game. I may have been correct to tell you there was a 10% chance of rain, but if it then went and rained on your picnic, I was wrong. My point is this: You should get legal advice concerning your method of online contracting.

Faxed Signatures

Q: You can't enter a contract with a faxed signature, because a fax is nothing more than a series of beeps and chirps.

A: Chalk one up in the false column.

I don't have enough imagination to come up with the idea that a fax isn't a ”writing” because it's, well, created by ”beeps and chirps.” For this deeply analytical thinking, we turn to a judge from Georgia:

It may also be added that a facsimile transmission does not satisfy the statutory requirement that notice be 'given in writing.' Such a transmission is an audio signal via a telephone line containing information from which a writing may be accurately duplicated, but the transmission of beeps and chirps along a telephone line is not a writing, as that term is customarily used. Indeed, the facsimile transmission may be created, transmitted, received, stored and read without a writing, in the conventional sense, or hard copy, in the technical vernacular, having ever been created.

You just have to wonder about someone who thinks ”hard copy” is ”technical vernacular.” I should just stop here, because I'm not sure I have, in the technical vernacular, the bandwidth to analyze the tremendous depth of thought given to us by this learned court, but I won't stop.

On a serious note, I think this court completely missed the mark with its decision. People commonly use faxes to form contracts, and I think this procedure is generally fine.

Still, in an abundance of caution, there is something nice about receiving the original signature the next day from your favorite overnight delivery company.

Faraway Court

Q: Your Web site could give a court in a faraway state or country the power to hear a case against your company.

A: This is true.

This is a troubling area that calls for caution because the law is unsettled and because being hauled into a faraway court can prove extremely expensive to your company and extremely stressful to you.

You're likelier to run into a problem here if your Web site takes orders from distant places than if it's really nothing more than an online brochure. Still, you should consult with your tech lawyer as to how to deal with the laws of distant places.

Some of the recommendations might include having different Web sites for different countries, to help ensure compliance with local law, and creating a user agreement that requires Web surfers to litigate any dispute in your local courthouse, not theirs.

That's it. Now you know everything you need to know. Well, maybe not, but this was a good start. I bet you learned something.

Mark Grossman is member of this publication's editorial board, and a shareholder and chairperson of the Technology Law Group of Becker & Poliakoff, P.A. Visit his Web site at www.EComputerLaw.com. His e-mail address is [email protected].

This column will tell you everything you need to know to do business online and use computers in your business. An impossibility? You're right. But humor me as I cram in as much as I can.

To keep it interesting, I'll do this in the form of a true/false quiz, so you can test your own knowledge.

Copyright

Q: The Internet is public domain, and when you publish something on the Net, you lose your copyright.

A: false.

This is just one of those misconceptions that seems to have a life of its own. Laws of intellectual property, including copyright and trademark, apply as much online as off. The Net is just not the lawless Wild Wild West, so please get the idea out of your head.

Libel

Q: If you post a libelous statement on a Web site, you can't be sued for libel.

A: False ' and yet another example of a popular misconception.

Call someone a thief on the Internet or a magazine, and you'll get the same result: You'll be sued, unless, of course, the person is a thief. After all, truth is an absolute defense to libel, both online and off.

Contracting Online

Q: If you put a link on your site that reads, ”Terms and Conditions of Web site Use,” and links to a contract that governs the use of your site, the contract is enforceable even if the Web surfer never reads it.

A: If you said, ”true,” you were right ' more or less. I have to say it's more true than not, but this subject still causes controversy. While I think most courts would agree it's true, some courts may not. So be careful.

Although I think you're more likely to have a winner than a loser on this point, don't lose sight of the fact that this is a statistical game. I may have been correct to tell you there was a 10% chance of rain, but if it then went and rained on your picnic, I was wrong. My point is this: You should get legal advice concerning your method of online contracting.

Faxed Signatures

Q: You can't enter a contract with a faxed signature, because a fax is nothing more than a series of beeps and chirps.

A: Chalk one up in the false column.

I don't have enough imagination to come up with the idea that a fax isn't a ”writing” because it's, well, created by ”beeps and chirps.” For this deeply analytical thinking, we turn to a judge from Georgia:

It may also be added that a facsimile transmission does not satisfy the statutory requirement that notice be 'given in writing.' Such a transmission is an audio signal via a telephone line containing information from which a writing may be accurately duplicated, but the transmission of beeps and chirps along a telephone line is not a writing, as that term is customarily used. Indeed, the facsimile transmission may be created, transmitted, received, stored and read without a writing, in the conventional sense, or hard copy, in the technical vernacular, having ever been created.

You just have to wonder about someone who thinks ”hard copy” is ”technical vernacular.” I should just stop here, because I'm not sure I have, in the technical vernacular, the bandwidth to analyze the tremendous depth of thought given to us by this learned court, but I won't stop.

On a serious note, I think this court completely missed the mark with its decision. People commonly use faxes to form contracts, and I think this procedure is generally fine.

Still, in an abundance of caution, there is something nice about receiving the original signature the next day from your favorite overnight delivery company.

Faraway Court

Q: Your Web site could give a court in a faraway state or country the power to hear a case against your company.

A: This is true.

This is a troubling area that calls for caution because the law is unsettled and because being hauled into a faraway court can prove extremely expensive to your company and extremely stressful to you.

You're likelier to run into a problem here if your Web site takes orders from distant places than if it's really nothing more than an online brochure. Still, you should consult with your tech lawyer as to how to deal with the laws of distant places.

Some of the recommendations might include having different Web sites for different countries, to help ensure compliance with local law, and creating a user agreement that requires Web surfers to litigate any dispute in your local courthouse, not theirs.

That's it. Now you know everything you need to know. Well, maybe not, but this was a good start. I bet you learned something.

Mark Grossman is member of this publication's editorial board, and a shareholder and chairperson of the Technology Law Group of Becker & Poliakoff, P.A. Visit his Web site at www.EComputerLaw.com. His e-mail address is [email protected].