国际市场营销学（原书第15版）教学课件作者（美）菲利普R.凯特奥拉(PhilipR.CateorChap007课件.ppt

* The Internet is by its nature a global enterprise for which no political or national boundaries are closed. Although this is its strength, it also creates problems when existing laws do not clearly address the uniqueness of the Internet and its related activities. Existing law is vague or does not completely cover such issues as gambling, the protection of domain names, taxes, jurisdiction in cross-border transactions, and contractual issues. Cybersquatters (CSQs) buy and register descriptive nouns, geographic names, names of ethnic groups and pharmaceutical substances, and other similar descriptors and hold them until they can be sold at an inflated price. If a cybersquatter has registered a generic domain name that a company wants, the only recourse is to buy it. Other cybersquatting abuses that can pose a serious threat to business include parody sites, protest sites, and hate sites. A good example is , a site highly critical of Wal-Mart. This type of Web site may be difficult to prevent since the right to free speech is protected. The only defense Wal-Mart might have is to challenge the Web site’s right to use a trade name to direct someone to the site. Lawsuits involving libel, defamation, and product liability cause companies to voluntarily restrict their Web sites to selected countries rather than leave themselves open to legal action. The Internet is not a libel-free zone. Of 100 business leaders polled by the International Chamber of Commerce, more than one-third said legal uncertainty covering Internet operations affected “significant business decisions.” * Another thorny issue in e-commerce concerns the collection of taxes. A typical tax system relies on knowing where a particular economic activity is located. But the Internet enables individual workers to operate in many different countries while sitting at the same desk. When taxes should be collected, where they should be collected, and by whom are all issues under consideration by countries around