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Essential Business Handbook
for Managing the Internet's Legal Risks
Years of advising start-up and multinational companies
alike in managing the risks of using the Internet and rescuing others when things have
gone wrong propelled respected Internet authority and attorney Jonathan
Ezor to write Clicking Through: A Survival Guide for Bringing Your
Company Online (Bloomberg Press 2000). Plenty of books focus on the
Internet, but Clicking Through, like no other, opens up cyberspace
for business by identifying and explaining both the opportunities and the
inherent risks in simple, easy-to-understand terms. Industry
experts and reviewers alike have called the
book an essential tool for any company doing business online.
Beginning with the basics, Clicking Through
steers the reader painlessly through the process of how to get started building
and hosting a Web site. Ezor explains: the ins and outs of contracting with technical and
creative vendors to create and host the site, linking to other sites, how to handle
intellectual property and privacy issues, and what steps are necessary
to protect ownership of content. (Click here for some sample tips on Web
site design contracts.)
Clicking Through next discusses business
marketing on the Net, from prize promotions to e-mail campaigns, focusing on the
overlooked but hot areas where potential legal issues frequently lurk.
Businesses, more often than not, do not understand the serious ramifications of:
- The international scope of the Internet, whether you want
your site to be global or not!
- Privacy issues including collecting information and
then ensuring the security and integrity of that collected private
information
- "Spamming": how to avoid turning your online
marketing e-mail campaigns into annoying, or worse yet, illegal spam
- The red-hot issue of child Internet users and the risks
they pose
Clicking Through also directs business
owners to another critical area of exposure: employee liability. From employees'
use of e-mail, and the rights and risks of monitoring it, to controlling access
to illegal Web activities and materials such as gambling and child pornography,
Ezor recommends solid policies and solutions to manage the risks of employee
Internet use.
Clicking Through also touches on the
emerging area of cybertech insurance, demonstrating how to search for
appropriate and affordable insurance coverage, as well as how to identify the
risk areas where insurance is necessary. Ezor offers tips on finding
Internet-savvy professionals; and closes with a detailed "Webliography"
of essential legal and business Web sites.
Clicking Through will be
helpful for executives, IT professionals, attorneys and other advisors, and
students--anyone
involved or interested in the business use of the Internet. Even if your
organization is already "connected," Clicking Through will provide
you with new information and strategies to reduce and manage the risks you may
not even realize you are facing. The book also gives those who are leading their
company's charge onto the Internet solid ammunition to address and satisfy the
objections of colleagues afraid of this new business frontier. The Internet is
here, it has immense potential for profitability and cost savings if utilized
properly, and it's unlike anything your company has ever done--let Clicking
Through be your guide.
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