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Legal issues
It is easy to overlook the importance of legal issues when planning and developing your ebusiness website. Such an oversight, however, can be damaging and very expensive for your organisation.
You must ensure that the content of your new website is accurate and complies with current laws. It is also important to review the website regularly once it is up and running in order to ensure that it continues to comply.
The law, as it applies to websites, is complex and covers issues beyond those applying to ordinary businesses. Some of the important legal issues affecting ebusiness generally are:
- ownership of and responsibility for the website
- privacy laws in Australia
- defamation
- taxation and GST
- contracts with web developers, ISP and website host
- terms and conditions
- trade practices
- copyright and disclaimers
- trade marks
- confidential information
- security
- disability discrimination.
One of the most important issues that will arise with respect to your ebusiness is intellectual property. You must identify all intellectual property rights relevant to your organisation, in particular copyright, trade marks and patents. This includes:
- intellectual property rights, which you own or those that are licensed to you and which you need to protect
- third party intellectual property rights, which you must ensure are not infringed by your website.
You are liable for the infringement of third party intellectual property rights by those using your website, for which you will need to limit responsibility (as far as is legally possible).
These complex issues demand professional advice. You should obtain your own legal advice with respect to issues relating to your own website and ebusiness.
What to do
Consult the following online references for more information.
The Managing section of the NOIE ebusinessguide deals in detail with legal issues.
Another valuable and informative resource for copyright-related issues is the Copyright Council of Australia.
The CARP Internet development Guide 7. How do I create my website? also deals with copyright issues and disclaimers.
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