A Practical Guide to E-commerce and Internet Law is a comprehensive guide to the legal issues related to doing business online. It is aimed at anyone with responsibility for any part of a company’s e-business, be they IT managers, financial directors or in- house lawyers.

The book is edited by Osborne Clarke, a European business law firm with offices in the UK, Germany and US. It tackles the complexity of the subject by including contributions from its list of partners, associates and lawyers, each with expertise in particular areas.

This is a new edition, so much of it has been rewritten. Two chapters covering domain name disputes and online taxation have been totally rewritten to cover changes in this field.

There are 10 chapters and each is divided into as many as 18 sections, depending on the complexity of the issue. Topics run from employment and human rights, which includes information on email abuse and defamation, to domain names and litigation procedure.

However, the wide range of contributors and subjects does not make the book a difficult read. In

a comment on the first edition, Christian Keim, former legal director at Yahoo, described the book as “an accessible text that reads almost like a novel”.

The issue of data protection in business is dealt with in simple terms and with strong examples. Firms that store, use, request, or share personal information about individuals are bound by very strict rules, and this book covers all of these issues. “Data protection laws have been passed in the UK since 1984, but as the internet and online trade have developed, so has the scope of the laws passed” the chapter begins, before offering an introduction to all of these regulations, as well as best-practice guidelines for compliance. This section covers the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations and the sending of emails and faxes, as well as other issues that firms might not have considered, such as the use of location-based services and cookies.

Firms tempted to avoid the “onerous” European data protection laws are informed of some of the risks, and restrictions inherent in hosting elsewhere. Essentially, the book asks the questions that IT managers and users will either have, or should have. Such as, “What are the consequences if we get caught for non-compliance? And what are the chances of our getting caught?” This approach will help companies to answer many of their legal questions and will help those just starting out on compliance to ensure that they cover all the important issues.

Appendices of useful information, such as contact details for Oftel, the Office of Fair Trading and the Information Commissioner’s Office, are included in the book.

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