Abstract
In the area of electronic and mobile commerce there are unique legal risks as well as concerns that also apply to traditional businesses. This paper reviews the impact of peer-to-peer ebusiness models in a legal and technical context with a view to formulating technical and legal policy suggestions for technologists, scientists, managers and government policy makers. To assist in addressing the intractable nature of the problems the researchers have developed a preliminary Legal Issues Management Framework. Issues such as forensic auditing, technical diligence, lawful intercept and sovereign risk are canvassed as well as the threats to current ebusiness models. Various traditional laws have been successfully applied to electronic transactions and new laws (cyberlaws) have been devised to deal with the latest technologies. Practitioners of P2P businesses must be aware of legal requirements and the risks involved in doing business in cyberspace. The digital economy develops at e-speed but the law does not. This paper outlines the enormous technological advances that impact on P2P business models and illustrates, with international examples, the reactions from international and national legal communities.
Highlights
The arrival of Napster's implementation of Peer-to-Peer networking attracted enormous attention both from individuals who wished to share files and entities which did not want the wholesale, free sharing of music files
The first criminal prosecution for online music piracy occurred in 2003 when three Australian students were charged with copyright offences by the Australian Federal Police (AFP), following an investigation assisted by Music Industry Piracy Investigations (MIPI), the enforcement arm of the Australian record industry
The law is struggling to cope with the global phenomenon of P2P networks and the global implications of the digital economy
Summary
The arrival of Napster's implementation of Peer-to-Peer networking attracted enormous attention both from individuals who wished to share files and entities which did not want the wholesale, free sharing of music files. In July 2005, Michael Weiss the CEO of Streamcast Morpheus stated: We will continue our David vs Goliath fight to prove that we operate 100% on the right side of the law [41] Such peer-to-peer systems, Kazaa and Grokster, have been the subject of international law suits which have attracted a lot of media attention. In April 2003, a United States federal judge ruled that companies providing peer-to-peer (P2P) file sharing esoftware could not be held liable for copyright infringement by users of the software [12], [34]. Grokster and StreamCast Networks, Inc. case back to the lower Federal Court, which previously had ruled in favor of file-sharing software. The paper concludes by pointing the way to future research
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callMore From: Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
