Article Review
In today’s business world, the use of technology has changed how transactions take place between consumers and businesses. The capability to do business on the Internet has opened the gates for companies to grow at faster rates by making products and services available to consumers on demand. Although the Internet has allowed quick expansion to many business sectors, the growth of such capabilities has also presented a different set of issues. Protecting intellectual property for these types of business transactions has proven to be challenging. Common types of intellectual property protection include copyright, trademarks, patents, industrial design rights, trade dress, and in some jurisdictions trade secrets. Legislatures have educated themselves with priority, on the differences in commerce and e-commerce. The following article review will reveal what is becoming more apparent as consumers persistently demand instaneous e-commerce products and services.
Intellectual-property Protection Opens Path for E-commerce
One of the fastest growing e-commerce businesses today is the sale of music, documents, software,and other forms of intellectual property. Vendors of such products are faced with how to protect this intellectual property that they are selling over the internet from people who copy, forward, or resell without authorization. This is an issue because digital technologies allow original quality reproductions. Billions of dollars are lost to piracy every year (Lawton,2000). Some companies protect their intellectual property by encrypting and defining user rights. Some key concepts being developed to protect intellectual property are through trust systems, java-based encryption technologies, flexible, hardware-based technologies, and software registration codes. Some legal concerns that have come about with the development of intellectual property protection technologies is that copyright owners gain too much control which could lead to the Web becoming less open and more difficult or impossible to access many documents, photo images, audio, and video for fair-use purposes. Another concern is that consumers will lose access for academic or other public interests.
Ethics in e-commerce
Privacy and security are ethical issues for consumers and businesses alike in e-commerce. Digital storage and backup files leave sensitive information open to access by employees and third parties, which represents a huge gray area in e-business ethics. Eighty percent of companies collect data about their customers in the form of spending habits, credit card information and other sensitive information. Companies use programs such as cookies to track consumer information, most websites have disclaimers stating that they collecct information. Security issues arise in e-commerce where hackers can obtain personal information about consumers. Personal information landing in the hands of third parties that may cause damage to consumers and businesses alike.

References
Melvin, S. P. (2011). The legal environment of business: A managerial approach: Theory to practice (1st Ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Lawton, G. (2000, February). Industry Trends. Computer, vol. 33, no. 2, pp. 14-17,21. doi:10.1109/MC.2000.820033. Retrieved from: http://www.computer.org.ezproxy. apollo library.com/ csdl/mags/co/2000/02/r2014.html on July 29, 2013.