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EC- Related Legal Incidents

The main Legal Incidents are:
1) Contractual Issues in EC: An example is as below: 
    • i) ProCD sold a database program called SelectPhone containing information from 3,000 telephone directories. 
    • ii) Company sold the same program to both commercial users and individual retail consumers with a discount offered to the consumers. 
    • iii) The discount was based, in part, on an agreement, or license, that restricted the use of the program to non-commercial purposes.
    • iv) Mr. Zeidenberg bought a retail version of the program and re-sold it over the internet, a violation of the agreement. 
    • v) When sued by ProCD. Zeidenberg argued that the contract was not enforceable since he was unable to examine it until after he had purchased and opened the package. 
    • vi) The court responded by explaining that Zeidenberg bound himself to the terms by using the program when he had the opportunity to return it. The Supreme Court held that "Shrink-wrap licenses are enforceable unless their terms are objectionable on grounds applicable to contracts in general."
    • vii) The Court reasoned that placing the terms on the outside of the box would require such fine print, would diminish. Conversely, if the post- sale terms are additional to an already formed contract, then those terms are probably not enforceable as part of the agreement. 
    • viii) The Court also recognized that an increasing number of software sales are performed by wire where the opportunity to review conditions may not occur until the "package" is in the possession of the consumer. 
    • ix) As a result of these forward-looking facts and supposition of the direction of online software sales, the Court established a precedent that addressed a small portion of electronic contract law that paves the way for enhanced electronic commerce.
 
2) Copyright Infringement on the Web: An example is as below: 
    • i) MIT student offered free copies of software (Word, Excel, WordPerfect) free over his bulletin board system. 
    • ii) When sued, found not guilty because he had not benefited financially as per the Copyright Infringement Act. 
    • iii) This loophole has since been fixed; today it is illegal to do.

3) E-music charges MP3.com over Copyrights: An example is as below: 
    • i) MYMP3.com's service allowed users to listen to their CDs from any computer with internet connection. 
    • ii) EMusic.com sued MP3.com for infringing on copyright of some albums for which they owned the digital rights. 
    • iii) MYMP3.com was suspended, but is now running again as a subscription- based music service.
 
4) Julia Roberts's Domain Name: An example is as below: 
    • i) Julia Roberts claimed she owned her domain name. 
    • ii) Boyd, a dealer in celebrity names, felt there was no common law trademark to the names. 
    • iii) He auctioned off 50 sites using celebrity names. 
    • iv) World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) ruled that he had no rights or legitimate interest in the domain name and had registered in bad faith.

 
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