Internet Law and Regulation - Essay Example

?Running Head: E-Commerce E-Commerce [Institute’s E-Commerce In recent years, there have been huge advancements in the field ofinformation and technology that has resulted in significant alterations in different administrative processes of the countries around the globe. Specifically, internet has changed the perspective and nature of traditional business practices in the form of e-commerce that has brought business activities to an unimaginable growth and status. Consequently, it has become imperative for governments to come up with effective strategies and efficient regulations to ensure growth in e-commerce. In case of Ruritania, the potential of e-commerce is unlimited and will be very beneficial; however, it brings with it a number of legal issues regarding intellectual property, privacy, customer protection, copyright, etc that the government should focus on to ensure continuous growth of e-commerce in the country. However, this process of introducing and implementing new laws and strategies related to e-commerce will not be easy, and thus, the government should prepare itself to confront different challenges in this process due to the international nature of the internet and e-commerce. In this regard, the foremost requisite to ensure e-commerce growth will be to take global and diversified perspective while creating new strategies and regulations (Wimmer, 2003). It has been an observation that regulations and laws focusing only local stakeholders often result in negative outcomes, which the government of Ruritania will have to avoid during the process of alteration of laws and regulations related to e-commerce. One of the most important concerns that the government of Ruritania should focus on is the application of copyright on digital content, as well as application of national regulations in the cyberspace. Additionally, some other issues are privacy of customers and consumers on the internet and level of security in the electronic commerce. Most importantly, taxation on the cyber trade has been one of the most crucial concerns related to e-commerce globally. Studies (Wimmer, 2003) have indicated that while creating laws and regulations related to the e-commerce, one of the major confrontations is the application of regulations in cyberspace environment, which creates the process a very complex one. In this regard, it will be very imperative for the government of Ruritania to consider broadest range of possibilities. For this reason, in order to consider every perspective, it is advisable that the government should share the proposed legislations and strategies with local, as well as international stakeholders, as their approval will be crucial to encourage e-commerce activities in the country, and their discontent may result in adverse outcomes. In other words, consensus of the government officials, as well as the other stakeholders will ensure effectiveness and success of the legalization process that many countries avoid and face adverse results. To begin the process, the Electronic Transaction Act (Smith, 2007) will be the basic and essential regulation to resolve existing legal issues in Ruritania and it will be an efficient way of authenticating electronic transactions in the country. Specifically, this act will enable contractual transactions, such as offers and acceptances in the cyberspace. Additionally, the act will enable customers to fulfill the legal requirements by using their electronic signatures that will resolve a number of legal issues in the e-commerce arena of Ruritania. Consequently, it is anticipation that the Electronic Transaction Act (Smith, 2007) will increase electronic commerce activities in Ruritania by ensuring efficiency in the cyberspace. Moreover, business organizations will also be benefiting from this act due to reduction in managerial duties and operational costs after its introduction. Besides the act, another suggestion is to ensure compliance of laws and regulations by all the service providers and stakeholders involved in the process of e-commerce, as it has been an observation that non-existence of tools and bodies that ensure compliance results in lack of effectiveness and subsequently, reduction in the e-commerce activities. In this regard, introduction of a regulatory body will be an effective step to encourage growth and more specifically, efficient growth of e-commerce in Ruritania. For this reason, service providers and stakeholders will have to ensure transparency in their e-business practices in the cyberspace by indicating company’s registered name and physical address on their websites. It is an understanding that such regulation will increase transparency, as well as increase customer satisfaction during different e-commerce transactions. Besides ensuring transparency, it is very imperative that the government should balance between rights of consumers and benefits of business organizations, as the governments often introduce legislations that strengthen consumer rights; however, on the other hand, retailers confront challenges and it creates tension, subsequently, causing reduction in the e-commerce growth. For instance, recently, Parliament of the European Union (Smith, 2007) proposed some amendments to enhance right of the consumers by extending the period of returning products from seven to fourteen days. On one hand, this amendment increased the level of customer’s satisfaction; however, on the other hand, retailers showed their concern on it considering it an eroding tool for their e-business activities. In this regard, the government of Ruritania should put efforts to acquire perspectives of both parties before any approval. Another imperative factor that will ensure continuous growth of e-commerce is the consistent update of laws and regulations related to e-commerce. Due to introduction of new technologies every other quarter, the nature of e-commerce keeps changing frequently (Smith, 2007), and thus, there is an urgent need of up-to-date regulations that will encourage business organizations to invest in e-commerce and subsequently, it will automatically increase the number of e-transactions in the country. For this purpose, the government should endeavor to set up a regulatory body that will be responsible for ensuring up-to-date legislations in accordance with contemporary technologies on the internet. From these abovementioned reforms, the government of Ruritania will be able to eliminate any existing barriers that will be hindering the growth of e-commerce in the country. To summarize, the government should ensure official acknowledgment of digital signatures as legal representation tool on the internet in the law. Furthermore, the government should set up a regulatory body that will be responsible for issuing licenses to business organizations while ensuring compliance of regulations as well. Lastly, an effective step will be to avoid internet-related taxes that will encourage consumers to carry out e-transactions, and subsequently, increase growth of e-commerce in the country. References Smith, G. J. H. (2007). Internet Law and Regulation. Sweet & Maxwell. Wimmer, K A. (2003). E-commerce Law & Business. Aspen Publishers Online. Read More