REVIEW:E-Commerce: A Guide to the Law of Electronic Business

Internet Business News, Jan, 2000

INTERNET BUSINESS NEWS-(C)1995-2000 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

This mighty tome weighing in at 321 A4 pages is a comprehensive guide to the legal aspects of getting on the web and conducting business over the Internet.

Aimed primarily for business managers, students and legal practitioners alike it serves as an up-to-date guide to current British and European law on this rapidly-changing subject. The text covers the major points of law along with relevant case histories on the main business and legal aspects of trading electronically. It begins by looking at domain names and e-mail and advertising including search engines. The focus then moves on to the ins and outs of conducting business over the Internet, including contracts and electronic signatures, transacting with credit cards and e-cash, copyright, designs, patents and trademarks, settling disputes and taxation issues.

What differentiates this book from all the other e-commerce texts is its focus on the legal issues. For this reason I am sure it will be of particular interest to students and legal practitioners alike who are looking for a solid at-a-glance grounding in the relatively new area of e-commerce. The text is easy to read and understand, demonstrating as it goes along how familiar points of law like contracts and trademarks apply in the electronic business world.

As one would expect from a new legal reference source, this book is very up-to-date, featuring case law as recent as September 1999 as well as the latest EU directives. The cross-referencing to relevant case law, found throughout the text, is useful although on occasion the cases are referred to only by name and it would help to have a short summary for those readers who do not have a library of case histories at their disposal!

CONCLUSION: As both a general introduction and a reference source, this book is required reading for anyone needing to understand the legal implications of conducting business over the Internet. If you already have -- or are planning to launch -- a business presence on the web, this includes you!

Title:E-Commerce: A Guide to the Law of Electronic Business Author:Steven York and Kenneth Chin Published (in English) by:Butterworths ISBN:0-406-98263-5 Price:GBP95 Reviewer:Patricia Johns

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