Businesses that operate on the WEB must comply with the same laws and regulations that govern the operations of all businesses. If they don't, they face the same set of penalties, and prosecutions that any other businesses face.

The Internet brought the legal environment of E-Commerce into a new dimension, that is borderless, crossing cultures, territories and political boundaries and geographical locations. There often is a formal procedure for exiting one country and entering the other that requires an examination of documents. The language and currency usually change. All these experiences are manifestations of the differences in legal rules and cultural customs in the two countries. In the physical world, geographic boundaries almost always coincide with legal and cultural boundaries.

Culture determines laws and ethical standards.

****

Replying to [**** Moby]: ...and the laws of different countries frequently conflict. All the more reason why it is vital in cross-border trade to ensure you access facilities to resolve disputes outside of the law and the courts. I hosted last month the 5th International Forum on Online Dispute Resolution held in collaboration with the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. For details, and of online mediation generally, go to www.TheMediationRoom.com

Replying to [**** Moby]: In a perfect world your right. But there is no such thing as the internet or cyber police. There is no international body that is proactive in reducing crime on the internet, nor a single unit that has global rights to cross international borders. You don't have to be a legally registered business to conduct business on the internet. From anywhere in the world you can open a virtual office in another country, all you need is a little money and a little know how to scam hundereds of thousands of dollars from people or other companies. Often these e-commerce sites are but shells of other companies repeated over and over multiple levels deep.

We have international trade laws for real companies conducting business. But then, if they are not a real company who do they answer to? There is no country that I know of that has the resources or national budgets to fight electronic crime.

Therfore it is up to each individual user of the internet to be the first line of defense against thwarting e-commerce fraud. There are more and more users signing on to the internet daily, yet these individuals do not have any knowledge of the pitfalls that may befall them. All you need do is search the forums of this site and you will find hundreds of people that do not know how to protect themselves from the wolves that would prey upon them, and for some it is as though they do not care to personally protect themselves from being the prey.

Ranger

Replying to [Ranger]:

The Cyber Space is an extension of the media to conduct business, and it has gain in popularity and increasing amount of transactions and businesses take place in the WWW.

Laws are set to protect the honest businesses and consumers, that has been enforced since the beginning of mankind. The clause: "Man shall not live on bread alone, but every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." meaning to say that we must abide by the law and order our lives accordingly. The same principles of rules and guidelines which apply to the business out of the Cyber World, apply also to Internet businesses.

The United States of America has the most law abiding Internet companies and business transactions, but there are still a small number of crooks around who will scam ordinary folks out of their money and fraudulantly cheat big organisations, including the Government. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is one of the enforcement organisations to nap these scammers and bring them to justice.

See link below on SEC - "what we do." If you were to note, the website is shtml, a secured website.

http://www.sec.gov/about/whatwedo.shtml

Here is a case reported by third party of an incident where there was 'police action' by SEC.

http://www.techlawjournal.com/seclaw/81029.htm

****

I am quite keen to trade ethically. I particularly would like to avoid trading with countries with poor **** records. Is there any a list of such countries on the web anywhere?

Replying to [maxsteam]:

Concerning **** of the countries in the world, you can Google and will get the results.

There is a report on Civil liberties at website:

http://bubl.ac.uk/link/c/civilliberties.htm

There is comprehensive report by United Nations **** Watch Group, and they have published their findings and 2the 006 report in pdf form.

http://hrw.org/wr2ky/wr2006.pdf

****

Replying to [**** Moby]:
MY WIFE THINKS THIS WHOLE WEBSITE IS A SHAM AND FULL OFF SCAMMERS AFTER SEARCHING GOOGLE FOR ADDRESSESS OF MANY COMPANIES HERE. ONE WAS EVEN THE ADDRESS OF A CANCER CHARITY ORGANISATION IN THE UK. WE HAVE BEEN SCAMMED TO THE TUNE OF $400 DOLLARS BY DADEXESTORE, ANY TRANSACTION E MAILS TO BESTSHOP2USA OR ANY BESTSHOP IS A SCAM BUYERS BEWARE. THERE ARE MANY MANY MANY ON THIS ALIBABA THEIVING SITE.. BE WARNED

Replying to [**** Moby]:

The legal matter is the backbone of all human activities, including business. Without it, there will be chaos, and free-for-all situation where dog-eat-dog and rule of the jungle reins.

God gave us the first set of laws and guidelines, the Ten Commandments. Along with the laws to protect the innocent and society as a whole, are the punishment for breaking the rules and rewards for abiding by them.

Street Smart

if you believe in  rights then the last place you would trade would be china but the money factor over rules all that. so do not be pompous and say political right stuff when you are as hypocritical as all. MOney transcends borders and   rights is good in text book. Do not go crying for protection take care of your own interest

We have to comply with all of them both on the internet and in our lives