In September 2001 the National Consumer Council surveyed UK Web sites and concluded that
Brock has many years of experience in this area as in-house legal counsel at Dixons Group. She writes from the perspective of researcher and shopper rather than a lawyerish technology buff. She does explain technology where it is important to understand it in order to be able to apply the law to it but she does so in user-friendly laymen’s terms. As a result the book is useful for Luddite lawyers as well as Internet businesses. There are several e-business textbooks including ones produced by law firms but Brock’s strengths are her practical approach and clear simple writing style.
Brock’s book deals with the whole gamut of legal issues affecting e-business, including brand protection, content, advertising and consumer law, personal data, e-contracts, as well as a chapter specifically on ISPs (not surprising bearing in mind Brock’s involvement with Freeserve).
The book also includes useful checklists and a host of precedents at the end of the book as well as contacts and Web links for further information. In addition, Brock addresses issues relating to the use of e-mail and the Internet at work, to cover areas such as confidentiality, security, employee abuse, policies for employee use of e-mail and the Internet and monitoring of such use. There have been many legislative developments in this area as well as the issuing of guidance by the Information Commissioner’s office and employers need to take active steps to protect both themselves and their employees.
The brand protection chapter considers trade names and trade marks, database rights, copyright and domain names. She explains primary and secondary domains and mentions the relatively new top level domains which were approved by ICANN (.biz, .info, .name, .pro, .aero, .coop and .mu) together with an assessment of their value. The chapter also deals with metatags and their importance in increasing a site’s exposure in search engines and directories as well as a warning about abusing them, with an account of the Road Tech Computer Systems Limited v Mandata (Management and Data Services) Limited case. The issues around deep-linking and framing are also considered. This chapter is useful but would have benefited from a little more detail in parts.
The chapters on content and contracts are fairly comprehensive and include useful pointers on contract negotiation and analysis, especially in respect of Web site design and build, hosting, linking content and third-party relationships and the text is complemented by the provision of precedent agreements at the back of the book. A chapter on security addresses issues such as payment systems, encryption, and digital signatures.
In relation to consumer contracts, there is detailed treatment of the Distance Selling Regulations and Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002 and advertising regulation is mentioned, along with the issues relating to trading with children, although a more comprehensive look at consumer law as it affects e-business might have been useful.
One of the biggest minefields for any business, let alone an e-business, is data protection. The Data Protection Act 1998 and the impending implementation in the
One weakness of the book is that it does not address issues relating to the Disability Discrimination Act. This is an area which many Web sites ignore at their peril and some mention of its requirements in this book would have been useful. Indeed, in July 2003 the RNIB announced that it would be assisting in
It may not quite have the magic of the latest Harry Potter book but, with the advantage of addressing some of the sexier issues in law, it is a practical, readable race through e-commerce legal issues and the author’s experience in, and enthusiasm for, this area are clearly demonstrated.
Helen Hart is Senior Legal Counsel at Centrica plc.