Universal Business

Companies and individuals must also refrain from the practice of ‘copy-paste’ of text from one website to another, which is an example of copyright infringement (Warholic, 2007). With the advent of the Internet and the fact that it is very easy to research online, the simple act of copying text and not citing the real author has become prevalent Although it is unethical and illegal, people take advantage of it without thinking whether it is right or not. Plagiarism will surely have adverse effect in companies and individuals that are hard to resolve.

Meanwhile, even when accounts are secured with passwords, there have been instances when hackers attack customers’ private information and attempt to profit from this information.. And sometimes even on a remote situation, those who maintain business websites sell or give the client’s personal information to other B2C or B2B sites. Problems regarding privacy and security also affect B2B sites. It is very important that businesses, companies and individuals maintain good relationships with their clients.

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Those who maintain B2C and B2B sites and clients must establish ethical values and legal perspective. For instance, both sides must have an understanding that any information exchanged between them through email must be confidential. Breach of trust, confidence or company act done by either company/individual or client will result to serious implications. When it comes to the legality and regulatory issues, nothing much differs between B2C and B2B sites. Legal issues concerning B2C sites include copywriting and publishing.

Libel can have bad implications if negative or defamatory articles are published about clients and companies on other websites. Intellectual property rights should be observed to prevent any legal damages. Some of the things that must be considered when it comes to ecommerce are the following: policies, security, privacy, electronic copyright, tariffs, etc. Warholic (2007) believed that a lot of problems arising from doing business online have legal implications. For instance, he faced identity theft as a result of doing business online.

Hackers steal, change or deface a client’s information. As a result, client’s trust in those who maintain the business is marred. Another example is the legal issues in email. Despite e-mail’s advantages when it comes to sending messages instantly, companies and individuals might suffer from defamation, harassment and breach of confidence. Despite the fact that governments demand the imposition of regulations in email, these are not followed. For instance, individuals send messages that are seemingly harmless when in truth viruses are attached to them.

In other cases some persons can hack into someone else’s email. This kind of problem is hard to stop, regulations or none, because of its enormity. Copyright infringements in both B2B and B2C sites, which also fall under the legal and regulatory issues, should be avoided since this will affect the credibility of the websites and their relationships with the clients or businesses. Only factual information should be posted. Business to business relationships are also tarnished when issues like Internet fraud, scams, plagiarism and cheating directly affect both sides.

Scams, for examples, have bad legal implications for the websites and might destroy the company’s or businesses’ reputation. Companies can be sued for publishing information that is incorrect or malicious. Both B2B and B2C sites should avoid money-making scams. Perhaps in years to come more will arise in terms of ethical, legal and regulatory issues. And perhaps regulations and solutions to these issues will be brought upon. The presence of these issues is evidence enough that although there is freedom in what you can do in the Internet, barriers must be set.

Such issues, which can differ or be the same in B2B and B2C sites, include privacy, security, copyright infringements, frauds and scams in emails, plagiarism and libel. They may differ or not, but the fact is that these must be stopped and prevented to protect the businesses of companies and individuals and to protect clients. These ethical, legal and regulatory issues must be examined more deeply so that business transactions between companies and clients are more rewarding for both sides.

References

Bosak, Jon. (2002). “Web services for business. ” Washington, D. C. The Universal Business Language. Jones, Paula. (2001). “B2B. ” Retrieved on November 10, 2008 from SearchCIO. com, http://searchcio. techtarget. com/sDefinition/0,,sid182_gci214411,00. html Warholic, James. (2007). “Warning, copyright infringement is a crime. ” Retrieved on November 10, 2008 from http://pwebs. net/marketing/ethics/articles/copyright-violation-issues. htm.