Software Technology and Electronic Transactions - Essay Example

Introduction In the age of information technology revolution, so many strategies and moves have been made in order to create business that goes with the current trend. The trend is to conduct business in the online world. This covers uncertainty and over the course of time there is no definite assurance about the safety of transactions at all considering there is constant innovation and there are still much to be learned about the integration of information technology in the internet world. This is definitely unlike with the traditional way of conducting business in which current needed laws exist in order to provide legal protection for all involved, concerned and parties. The age of electronic commerce (e-commerce) is a challenging scenario knowing that technological advancement and information technology move into fast-paced speed. This is to say that information changes every now and then over time and technological innovations remind about risk and create the demand for further safety. Thus, everything in e-commerce must come to consider the basic and just to name a few this must include intellectual property law, privacy law, data protection and rights and duties in the online world which includes liabilities, ownerships and contracts. These are all the basics and they just reflect the traditional approach on how commerce originally works for all. This has become a big challenge for policymakers and legislators not only in the UK but around the world. This paper tries to evaluate the different ways in which software technology and the growth of electronic transactions have boosted the growth and development of e-commerce law in the UK. Software technology and electronic transactions Development of software technology is a very important process in the course of e-commerce or electronic marketing considering that it is primarily linked to various forms of electronic transactions. There are different electronic transactions and they all depend on the software technology. For instance, the automated teller machine is a programmable machine which links any related bank to bank transaction. Databases require reliable software technology in order to ensure effective and safety in gathering of data and processing of information. Uploading and downloading of data, information or online products require highly enhanced software technology to effectively conduct various forms of electronic transactions. Electronic transactions are considered modern innovations of e-commerce. They acquired wide range of acceptance and this is the reason why there is a growing concern regarding their safety, risk and associated legal aspects. One reason why electronic transactions become acceptable to many is due to its accessibility. Commerce over the internet can be subject to wide range of automation which provides easy access to target customers (Hedley, 2006). New business models using the internet have ensured to target their customers as far as their marketing strategies are concerned. The very point that the internet can be found everywhere in the world today justifies the idea that the best marketplace can be held online. In the new face of retail in e-commerce for instance, internet becomes one of the fastest retail sectors as triggered by acceptance of the consumers and high-speed broadband technologies (Lomax, 2006). For instance, subscription of electronic journals in the UK increases as students learn to accept their benefits (Brown and Boulderstone, 2008). This can bring a lucrative opportunity for electronic publishing. All of these point out to the fact that software technology development and electronic transactions are strongly intertwined. It is clear that the link between software technology and electronic transactions paved a way for the government to consider the needed legal aspects. It is in this reason that the growth and development of e-commerce law in the UK come into a complete perspective at present time. In order to understand this growth and development, it is important to consider the necessary steps involved. The idea and plan The growth and development of e-commerce law in the UK started in a complete formulation of idea. Such idea only emphasised the necessity to go for further growth and development. These are emphsised on the following situations. The government has an obligation as far as giving support for national needs is concerned. Part of these needs is to ensure that every business is under of a sound process. E-commerce falls under the coverage of national government’s support. Thus, the national government’s legitimate role involves development of national strategies to support electronic commerce and thus part of it is to incorporate electronic commerce legislation (Hosein and Whitley, 2002). Legislations are very important because the business is framed by legalities prior to its complete operation. Such idea becomes the foundation why the government needs to grow and develop certain e-commerce law. This can be elaborated further through the following cases and examples. Credit cards for instance are important components in electronic transactions. With credit cards, it is easy to acquire specific item via online transaction provided that the owner of the card still have existing balance from the total credit limit given by the bank. Transactions are fast and it is convenient for consumers to pay in case they do not bring cash with them. Credit card holders especially if they are out of the UK or overseas can actually use their credit cards as the UK Court of Appeal decided regarding the statutory protection of consumers in the extension of use of credit cards even outside the UK. Consumers buy on the internet and credit cards dominated the payment method thus this creates important consideration to e-commerce in the UK (Turner and Callaghan, 2006). It is in this reason that the government needs not only consider the economic status of the nation, as well as the complete safety of every transaction conducted through online as independently initiated by each consumer. According to Lomax (2006) e-commerce over the internet must create significant concerns especially on the potential risks of online business with the use of card payment details. This triggers UK to safeguard transactions via online of each consumer. Risks of online business is therefore one of primary concerns which will come to mind when talking about e-commerce. Thus, it is necessary for the government to be totally alarmed by these risks as part of its role and support for the national business environment. Other significant case which can elaborate further the growth and development of e-commerce law in the UK can be exactly observed within the internet world. Changes in the growth and commercial development of the internet are driving forces creating new legal challenges (Turner et al., 2003). These changes include peer to peer networking; Microsoft’s initiative; and wide spreading broadband connectivity which attracts new business model. However, behind these changes are actual needs of each business model to be totally protected by national strategies as encompassed by electronic commerce legislation. Other case can be observed within electronic publishing. As electronic publishing becomes widely accepted there are growing concerns covering legal matters. Defamation and copyright are legal considerations and of great relevance to electronic publishing (Rees, 1999). In the UK, copyright is a very important consideration as a way to protect the rights of publishers and as well as ensure business legal exercises. Thus, there is a need to look into control and selection, acquisition, modes of access, and licensing issues about e-books for each consisted problems confirming the need for a national model license (Armstrong and Lonsdale, 2005). Another important example can be illustrated by internet billing. Internet billing is a complex process and it aims to develop positive impact on cost, organisational structure and customer relationships, but cost and security can be significant barriers (Milroy and Li, 2001). This information sends an important message that the UK Government must be able to ensure protection for its highly evolving networked economy. Another aspect is in line with content regulation in the internet. Internet content regulation was one important aspect focused by the UK government placing it with associated concerns on cyber-speech such as child pornography, sexually explicit contents and more (Akdeniz, 2001). Sexually explicit sites are not only harmful to children but they stand as portal to hack information from the user revealing important financial information for instance. There are many considerations in the implementation of e-commerce Directive and these include assessment of some drawbacks especially regarding with the operation of society service providers and the protection of those who rely on them (Ketteley, 2002). This constitutes the overall plan needed prior to actual implementation of e-commerce and its associated legal regulations. The UK government was able to find a move to go for the regulation of encryption and digital signatures which was viewed to significantly affect the development of e-commerce (Worthy and Anderson, 1999). This was a specific approach in which the UK moved towards the complete plan foe electronic commerce bill. The implementation Consultation was made on August 2001 by the Department of Trade & Industry and Information Industries Directorate for the implementation of Electronic Commerce Directive in the national law by 16 January 2002 (Rowe, 2002). However, it missed the implementation on the said date because the Government needs to undergo public consultation for assessment regarding how the Directive’s proposed implementation is received (Ketteley, 2002). The UK Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 was able to transpose most of the provisions of Electronic Commerce Directive into the UK Law (Turner et al., 2003).This is just a manifestation that the implementation by itself is another process that requires more assurance on the side of consumers. There are many other implementations conducted and some of them are elaborated further in this section. Domain names for instance also have significant management and legal protection in the UK considering that they are widely used in the Internet by companies in building their business images in the global marketplace (Wang, 2006). Domain names are very important to be secured considering that protecting it is just like ensuring protection of the company. In building its competitive advantage, virtual companies are relying on their domain names and it is important they must be covered by the legal protection provided by the government. Even the efffective methods for software development in negotiating contracts have been subject of litigation (Hedley, 2006). This only emphasised that it is not only on actual electronic transactions the government is fully taking charge but on the advantage of software developers. Databases which are major considerations electronic transactions are another obvious area of legal coverage. Since electronic databases are significant part of the networked economy through information, the UK courts were able to support copyright protection for database and its application software; and the coverage of 50D of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (O’Hare, 2006). The Feedback and adjustment The whole process of growth and development of e-commerce law in the UK do not merely stop in the implementation process. Part of its growth and development is to consider evaluation. Here, feedback is necessary important so as to justify further any adjustment if needed. The UK government through Trade and Industry was able to publish report in line with the e-commerce bill towards building confidence in e-commerce (Miller, 1999). This is a significant move in order to gather corresponding feedbacks from the report. Businesses in line with the creation of computer softwares wished to patent their creation and this was subjected to heated debate in the UK courts as the UK Intellectual Property Office identified patentable inventions despite the European Patent Office and UK authorities are applying different tests for the patentability of computer software (Turle and Knight, 2008). The debate itself proved as important information and it can justify further that there was necessary feedbacks needed so as to come up with necessary adjustments. This creates wonderful opportunity towards the growth and development of e-commerce law. Even if some strict policies or even regulations are already implemented, still it cannot assure to stop unwanted incidents in e-commerce. This demands more feedbacks and necessary adjustments if needed. Chip and PIN technology reduced fraudulent crimes over the internet especially in e-commerce and ebanking. However these transactions continually exposed both bank and consumers to fraudsters (Maitre, 2009). According to Maitre this is the reason why the UK started to go for tighter security through strong authentication program that aims to protect consumers and all concerned. Total words: 2,038 References Akdeniz, Y. (2001) ‘Internet Content Regulation: UK Government and the Control of Internet Content.’ Computer Law & Security Report, Vol. 17(5): 303-317. Armstrong, C., and Lonsdale, R. (2005) ‘Challenges in managing e-books collections in UK academic libraries.’ Library Collections, Acquisitions, and Technical Services, Vol. 29(1): 33-50. Brown, D. J., and Boulderstone, R. 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