Law Commons^™

Can China Promote Electronic Commerce Through Law Reform? Some Preliminary Case Study Evidence, Jane K. Winn, Song Yuping

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The government of the People’s Republic of China (P.R.C.) has announced its intention to make China a global leader in innovation by 2020. Many Chinese business leaders share this goal. The primary focus of this national strategy is to transform China into an exporter of high-technology products based on Chinese designs rather than merely a low cost, high volume manufacturer of products based on technology developed in other countries.

This paper will examine the implications for this strategy with regard to the use of computerized management information systems by Chinese businesses, and its relationship to recent law reform efforts intended …

Collateralizing Internet Privacy, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

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Collateralizing privacy is a pervasive conduct committed by many on-line companies. Yet most don't even realize that they are engaging in collateralizing privacy. Worse yet, governmental agencies and consumer groups are not even aware of the violation of on-line consumer privacy by the collateralization of privacy. Professor Nguyen argues that collateralizing privacy occurs under the existing privacy regime and the architecture of article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. Professor Nguyen critiques the violation of privacy through collateralization dilemmas and proposes a solution involving modifications of the contents of the financing statement and security agreement in secured transactions where consumer …

Emerging Issues In Electronic Contracting, Technical Standards And Law Reform, Jane K. Winn

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The explosive growth of electronic commerce transactions in recent years has added fuel to efforts to harmonize international commercial law. Organizations such as the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and the Hague Conference on Private International Law are all participating in an emerging global debate concerning the changes that should be made to the form or substance of international commercial law to accommodate innovation in the technology of international trade.

Many of the important legal issues raised by cross-border electronic commerce in the 1970s and 1980s have …

Social Networks And Electronic Commerce In China, Jane K. Winn

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Communication technologies that make up the emerging global information infrastructure have the power to regulate online behavior. Social networks in Chinese society have survived the growth of formal legal institutions and liberalization of China's economy, but it is not clear whether they can survive the regulatory pressures created by global information technology networks.

The spread of electronic commerce technologies in China may strengthen legal institutions and open local markets to international competition, but is likely to be resisted by all the same interests that resist those changes in other contexts. The Chinese response to the spread of electronic commerce might …

Shifting The Paradigm In E-Commerce: Move Over Inherently Distinctive Trademarks, The E-Brand, I-Brand And Generic Domain Names Ascending To Power?, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

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“What's in a name!” laments Juliet at her Shakespearean balcony. Four hundred years later, in the world of e-commerce, Juliet's question would be “What's in a domain name?” After spending all of the Montague's wealth, Romeo might be able to respond, “Call me but love.com.” The price tag for some generic domain names cost a small fortune: Sex.com for $250 million, Business.com for $7.5 million, Broadband.com for $6 million, Loans.com for $3 million, Flu.com for $1.4 million, and Bingo.com for $1.1 million.

In 1995, Procter and Gamble registered hundreds of generic domain names and offered them for sale at auction …

Should It Be A Free For All? The Challenge Of Extending Trade Dress Protection To The Look And Feel Of Web Sites, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

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In the e-commerce world, a company's web site becomes the primary communication center with the customer. The web site is where the company displays products, presents marketing materials, and provides sales and post-sales support. Increasingly, companies are spending valuable resources to build and maintain their web sites. With the rapid change in web technology, many web sites now feature more than just ordinary text. Color, clipart, graphics, designs, animations, and sounds are now part of the overall appearance of web sites. Yet copying an image from a web site is just one click away. What protection is available to the …

Making Xml Pay: Revising Existing Electronic Payments Law To Accommodate Innovation, Jane K. Winn

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Many businesses today are rushing to embrace "e-Business" technologies in a mad scramble to remain competitive. Only a few years ago, simply using email instead of faxes or phone calls, converting a purchasing system to EDI technology, or building a corporate Web site might have seemed like important advances in the use of new information technologies.

Businesses are now moving beyond such "electronic commerce" technologies and trying to integrate their disparate information systems and business processes into a comprehensive new "e-Business" structure. At the heart of this new model for business organization is the idea that information and resources should …

Who Owns The Customer? The Emerging Law Of Commercial Transactions In Electronic Customer Data, Jane Kaufman Winn, James R. Wrathall

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The Information Revolution is changing the way commerce acted and value is defined within transactions. Before the Internet and "e-business" took center stage, "electronic commerce" meant electronic data interchange, just-in-time inventory systems, supply chain automation, and corporate reengineering.

But the rise of the Internet as a communications medium has coincided with a shift in management focus, from merely trying to improve the efficiency of business logistics systems to a more holistic perspective on improving customer relationships. Intangible assets such as intellectual property rights, human capital in the form of employee knowledge, and established relationships with customers and suppliers are playing …

Despatches From The Front: Recent Skirmishes Along The Frontiers Of Electronic Contracting Law, Jane Kaufman Winn, Michael Rhoades Pullen

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This Article will provide a short overview of the current efforts in the United States and the European Union to reform contract law to accommodate recent innovations in electronic contracting. Whether changes are needed to current contract law doctrines governing contract formation, effectiveness of contract terms, choice of law and forum provisions, special protections for consumers, and signature and writing requirements, revisions in these areas have all proved controversial. Even in those areas where a consensus may be emerging on whether law reform may be appropriate in some form, consensus is often still lacking with regard to the specific legislation …

The Emerging Law Of Electronic Commerce, Amelia H. Boss, Jane Kaufman Winn

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Although often not apparent to the average business person or even the average lawyer, changes are currently underway, both domestically and internationally, to adapt existing commercial law doctrines to accommodate electronic transactions and the technologies that underlie them. The Uniform Commercial Code (Code) is undergoing substantial revision in order to respond to changes in business practice and the use of electronic communications technologies. These revisions will provide many of the basic rules to support and facilitate electronic commerce, and, to the extent possible, are being coordinated with international efforts in the field.

While progress in the creation of uniform laws …