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E-Commerce::
If you're one of the lucky few, then you have something you can sell, ready to be packaged up into a box and shipped to someone that pays you. All you need done at this point is to find an affordable and high quality web service to build your site and set you up with a shopping cart. For receiving payments, PayPal.com is an affordable and easy to use option that the majority of Internet users trust and use. But there are things you need to be aware of, as with any business, on or off the Net. The following notes are not written to scare you off, but rather to make you think about the right way to approach on line business. Making a living on line can be incredible profitable if you approach it carefully and correctly, but then, the same can be said about ANY business.
Privacy and Security
Most businesses collect and retain sensitive personal information from their customers and employees such as names, addresses, social security numbers, credit card numbers and other account numbers. Protecting personal information not only makes good business sense, it can also help you avoid legal problems. Depending on the type of data you are collecting, and who you are collecting it from, you may be subject to federal and state privacy laws. Be sure you get acquainted with the laws governing your particular methods of doing business.
Collecting Sales Taxes Over the Internet
If you a run business with a physical storefront, collecting sales tax is pretty straightforward: you charge your customers the sales tax required by the jurisdiction where your business is located. So, if you operate a retail store in Nashville, Tennessee, you collect both state and local sales taxes from customers buying merchandise at your store.
Now, suppose you start selling your products online. Does mean you charge them the same sales taxes on those coming into your store? It depends. Be sure to ask your accountant the particulars of out of state taxation in your
E-Commerce: Selling Internationally
Selling your products online allows for immediate entry into the global marketplace. However, shipping your product overseas presents a few challenges if have little experience with taxes, duties, customs laws, and consumer protection issues involved with international commerce. If you will do much international business with real product (as opposed to digital goods), you'll probably want to hire the right accountant to handle that end of your business.
Online Advertising and Marketing
An old cartoon in the New Yorker showed two dogs in front of a computer, and had the caption "On the Internet, Nobody Knows You're a Dog." The inherent anonymity of the Internet has fostered a number of shady advertising and marketing practices, such as unsolicited e-mail spam. Over the past decade, federal and state governments have passed additional advertising laws that protect consumer privacy and ensure fair and truthful advertising practices online. If you plan to advertise online -- whether you're buying ads on search engines or direct marketing through e-maill. Be sure to take the time to learn law where this is concerned.
Digital Rights
Personal data is not the only thing protected on the Internet. Digital works, including text, movies, music and art are copyrighted and protected via the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). The DMCA offers a number of protections for information published to the Internet, as well as other forms of electronic information. Among its many provisions, the DMCA
- Limits Internet service providers from copyright infringement liability for simply transmitting information over the Internet. However, service providers, are expected to, upon notification, remove material from its web sites that appear to constitute copyright infringement.
- Limits liability of non-profit education institutions for copyright infringement by faculty members or graduate students.
- Makes it a crime to circumvent anti-piracy measures built into most commercial software. However, reverse engineering of copyright protection devices, is permitted to conduct encryption research, assess product interoperability, and test computer security systems.
- Provides exemptions from anti-circumvention provisions for non-profit libraries, archives, and educational institutions solely for the purpose of making a good faith determination as to whether they wish to obtain authorized access to the work.
- Outlaws the manufacture, sale, or distribution of devices used to illegally copy software.
- Requires that "webcasters" pay licensing fees to record companies.
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