By joel_guesclin on

I would be interested if anyone could give me some pointers to legal issues surrounding the setting up of e-commerce on a web site. The aim would be to provide downloads of texts, but also allow users to donate money and purchase hardcopy copies of books and magazines published on the site.

Does it make any difference where the site is hosted? What about banking regulations? In different countries? Does it matter if people buy things in French, but pay to an English account for example? I don't see why it should, but on the other hand maybe it does.

Obviously I'm not the first person to ask these questions - if anybody could point me to a site where this kind of advice is available, that would be a great help.

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Comments

coreyp_1’s picture

coreyp_1 commented

Believe me, these questions are best answered by legal professionals, but here are some general rules:

Something can be legal in one country, and illegal in others, including copyright laws. Do your homework or consult a professional. BTW, I am not a professional!

In the US, only works published before 1923 are in the public domain, and that magic year (1923) will not change until the year 2018, under current copyright laws. Don't make it available unless you either own the copyright or have written permission from the copyright holder!.

Manner of payment is flexible. Applicable laws are often more concerned with (1.) the local laws where you live, (2.) the local laws where the customer lives, and (3.) the local laws where the server is located.

- Corey

pkej’s picture

pkej commented

http://www.acm.org/ubiquity/views/v4i49_nasir.html

http://www.out-law.com/

Just to give you a couple of sites I found by searching on google (e-commerce site legal issues).

The second seems comprehensive. I went into its e-commerce category and found this page:

http://www.out-law.com/page-351

The info on distance selling seems to reflect the Norwegian law on distance selling in many parts.

The best advice is to get legal help from someone with the proper legal training for it.

Paul K Egell-Johnsen

Paul K Egell-Johnsen

joel_guesclin’s picture

joel_guesclin commented

Many thanks to the respondents - the information you proposed is exactly what I needed