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Starting an online business requires acquiring many of the same permits and licenses that are generally required for a traditional business. Generally a business, including an “e-business” or a company that operates on the web, requires a business license before it begins to operate. When a city grants a business license, it permits the business to operate within that city. A business license also registers the business for tax purposes.

Certain cities and counties may also require additional permits to operate a business in that location. Different types of businesses also have different license and permit requirements. The California Secretary of State can provide all the requirements for starting a business. Also, certain trades require professional or occupational licenses. For example, contractors, doctors, accountants, real estate agents, and lawyers must all acquire the required license before they may begin to practice. Each occupation has specific procedures and requirements for obtaining the required licenses. The respective licensing agencies provide the standards and procedures for these requirements. Licenses may also be required based on the products the business sells. For example, selling alcohol, firearms, or gasoline requires specific licenses.

Businesses that operate on the Internet may also be required to collect sales tax if the business maintains a physical presence in the state. Without a physical presence, such as an actual store or warehouse, an e-business is not required to charge sales tax. Some states do not have a sales tax or tax exemptions for specific items such as food or clothing. Before a business can sell taxable goods on the Internet, the business must obtain a certificate allowing the business to collect sales tax. In order to properly charge sales taxes, businesses must also be familiar with the appropriate tax rates. Online businesses may use programs that calculate sales tax for each transaction based on the items and applicable rates. Examples of these licensed shopping carts, or e-commerce platforms — include Magento, LemonStand, and IBM WebSphere Commerce. In an effort to improve tax-collecting efforts for businesses, some states have passed the Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement. This Agreement aims to pass federal regulations that will make tax collection across the country more uniform in order to simplify the process.

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Bullying has plagued people of all ages for many generations. Now, with the expansion of the Internet, bullies are able to threaten and harass people at an even greater level through cyberbullying. Stopbullying.gov, a government supported website aimed at spreading awareness, defines cyberbullying as any bullying that involves electronic technology such as computers and cell phones. Instances of cyberbullying aimed towards adults are generally referred to as cyber-harassment or cyber-stalking, whereas cyberbullying generally refers to harassment directed towards children.

Since cyberbullying can largely remain anonymous, it can be very difficult to trace the harassment back to a specific user. The effects of cyberbullying also last longer because the inappropriate posts or messages may be difficult to delete and therefore, have a permanent presence on the Internet. Cyberbullying is also not reserved to the Internet, since cyber-bullies often also target their victims in person. However, due to the expansive nature of the Internet, victims face cyberbullying at all times of the day.

Examples of this harassment includes sending vulgar or threatening messages directly to another person, posting inappropriate information about another person online, pretending to be another person online with the intent of ruining a reputation, posting inappropriate pictures of another person online, harassing another person with a multitude of text messages, or hacking into another person’s online account. Cyberbullying can take place through email, in online chatrooms, on webpages, or through text messages. Advanced features on social networking sites have also led to increased avenues for cyberbullying. For example, the ability to tag other people in a picture on Facebook has led to instances of cyber-bullies posting inappropriate pictures of other people and tagging them in these pictures.

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Cloud computing offers a revolutionary new way to conduct business over the Internet. This service is a form of cyber-outsourcing where virtual servers provide certain services or applications for consumers online. Cloud computing vendors include, IBM SmartCloud, Cisco Cloud Computing, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (aka Amazon EC2), and various smaller vendors. These providers offer a range of services including storage services and spam filtering.

There are various forms of cloud computing available over the Internet. Managed Service Providers (“MSPs”) are the oldest form of cloud computing. A “managed service” is an application such as virus scanning for email or anti-spam services. The most common form of cloud computing is through Software as a Service (“SaaS”), which delivers an application to multiple customers through a browser using a multi-tenant architecture. Customers benefit because they do not have to invest in servers or purchase software licenses. Providers benefit because they are able to reduce costs because they only need maintain one application for their multiple customers. Salesforce.com is a well-known example of SaaS cloud computing, but Google Cloud Storage is a fast growing option as well.

Similar to SaaS computing, some providers offer Application Programming Interfaces (“APIs”), which allow developers to offer certain functions over the Internet without having to offer entire applications. These functionalities range from specific business services to wider-ranging APIs, such as Google Maps. Another version of SaaS computing allows users to develop their own application and offer the application through a provider’s infrastructure over the Internet. The developers are limited by the provider’s capabilities, but the developers benefit from the established predictability. Google App Engine is an example of such cloud computing.

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Former CIA Director David Petraeus from his position after the FBI looked through Petraeus’ private Gmail account and discovered that he was having an extramarital affair. These events have brought to light the fragile state of individual privacy on the Internet, particularly in relation to individual email accounts.

According to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (“ECPA”), which is current and applicable cyber law, the FBI has the authority to look through any email account simply by accessing the account through providers such as Yahoo or Gmail. Under the ECPA, law enforcement agencies do not need a search warrant to look through such accounts if the message is more than 180 days old.

In addition, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (“FISA”), under Title 50, sections 1801 et seq. of the United States Code, allows the government to monitor communications between foreign parties, without a search warrant. A 2008 amendment to FISA further allows the government to monitor communications between American parties if the government does not know of the parties’ exact locations or identities. A group of attorneys raised a constitutional challenge to this amendment, and the matter is now before the United States Supreme Court. The justices have focused on whether the amendment offers the government an inappropriate range of power, or whether the amendment simply expands the government’s resources to protect America.

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Facebook is struggling to decide how to handle its pictures. While consumer companies urge Facebook to profit from its face recognition technology, international regulators insist that user identities remain protected. According to a New York Times article entitled, Facebook Can ID Face, But Using Them Grows Tricky, Facebook agreed to delete user identification information, which the site gathers through facial recognition technology. The technology at issue is Facebook’s “tag suggestion” which automatically matches names with faces when a user uploads a photo. Facebook has deactivated this feature to make improvements that international regulators can approve.

Chris Hoofnalge, a professor at the University of California Berkeley, School of Law stated in the article that increasing developments in this field “directly affects civil liberties.” Although, the public is more likely to accept using identifying information from facial recognition technology for security purposes, Wall Street is now pressuring Facebook to utilize its users’ personal data for profit. Legislators, such as Senator Al Franken, have expressed concern over Facebook’s “database of face prints,” which Facebook has gathered “without the explicit consent of its users.” Franken urged Facebook to provide the same right of privacy to its American users as it does its European counterparts.

The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) has issued a guide, “Facing Facts Best Practices for Common Uses of Facial Recognition Technologies,” aimed at defining facial recognition technology and outlining authorized uses. In addition, earlier this year Google announced a new tool that would allow individuals to blur their faces in YouTube videos. This is one of the first steps to provide “visual anonymity” in cyberspace.

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The content of an online search result for an individual generates a profile of the individual. Such content paints a picture for potential employers and colleagues, and the information may not be ideal. Therefore, in order to protect your online reputation and your overall image, it is important to take certain steps to monitor your online content.

First, signing up for social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn allows you to control the content that a web search will produce. Personalized Facebook and LinkedIn pages show up as the first results of a Google online search. This controls the content that attaches to your online reputation.

Andy Beal, who co-authored Radically Transparent: Monitoring and Managing Reputations Online, suggests that people should monitor their online reputation the same way they monitor their credit. This helps catch defamatory online postings in time to prevent a damaging reputation from solidifying. Beal suggests setting up a news feed that notifies individuals when their name is mentioned in an online posting. Google provides this option through Google Alerts, which will accomplish this for full name searches.

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In January 2013, the California Homeowner Bill of Rights will take effect, providing unparalleled protection for homeowners across the state. This Bill, which is the first of its kind, will reform the foreclosure process and provide unique protection for homeowners. The Attorney General of California, Kamala Harris pioneered the Bill in an effort to find a solution to the state’s foreclosure crisis. Under this legislation, homeowners in this state will have the best protection against foreclosures and lender abuses in the nation.

The foreclosure rates in California are one of the highest in America. This law comes at a time when homeowners struggle with banks to keep their homes, a battle that banks win more often than not. Indeed, a recent audit of the foreclosures in San Francisco revealed that 99% of the underlying loans had some legal issues. In addition, 84% of those loans exhibited “clear violations of the law.” However, after California passed the Bill, homeowners should be able to take on lenders more effectively in an effort to keep their homes.

A key provision in the Bill restricts “dual-track foreclosures.” As a result, lenders will be barred from continuing foreclosure proceedings while they are in loan modification discussions with homeowners. The Bill also imposes civil liability against lenders for utilizing “robo-signing” to file foreclosure documents. Through robo-signing lenders’ employees approve foreclosures without first reviewing the underlying mortgage documents. In order to help improve communications between lenders and homeowners, the Bill will also require that lenders present a single contact person for each customer. This will ensure that homeowners are able to facilitate sufficient communications with their lenders in order to efficiently reach a solution regarding their mortgages.

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The technological advancements and the ever-expansive world of cyberspace are in a perpetual state of conflict with individual privacy concerns. For example, a recent research project by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology demonstrates that independent component analysis allows companies to track changes in pulse by the subsequent change in skin color that is readily visible through a video signal. In addition, employers, credit agencies, and health insurance providers can now purchase indexes that contain consumer profiles based on individual consumer’s browsing history, site membership, and online purchases.

The Federal Trade Commission has issued a report that proposes the steps companies can take to ensure optimal protection of consumer privacy. The report, “Protecting Consumer Privacy in an Era of Rapid Change: Recommendations for Businesses and Policymakers,” urges companies to incorporate privacy protection in every stage of their products, provide a mechanism against online activity tracking, and fully disclose what user information it shares with other entities.

The California legislature has proposed a new bill that would impose new restrictions on social networking sites, which would limit the information available about users. The proposed legislation would allow users to select privacy settings before ever using the site, which limits the sites accessibility. Social Networking sites, such as Facebook, have responded that such legislation would inappropriately burden the sites, in turn devastating cyber-business in California.

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The Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) may be preparing to file an antitrust suit against Google for abusing its dominance as an Internet search engine to stifle competition from other search engines and arbitrarily increase advertisement costs.

The Sherman Antitrust Act, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1-7, which governs American antitrust law, makes direct and indirect “restraint of trade or commerce” illegal, both in interstate and foreign markets. The Clayton Antitrust Act, under 15 U.S.C. §§ 12-27, amended the Sherman Act in 1914 to include specific prohibited acts, such as price discrimination and mergers and acquisitions that substantially reduce competition. The Foreign Trade Antitrust Improvements Act, 15 U.S.C. § 6a, also limited the Sherman Act’s application to foreign trade only where “such conduct has a direct, substantial, and reasonably foreseeable effect” on “trade or commerce” within the United States.

The FTC investigation is rooted in accusations that Google engages in “preferencing,” which means that Google engineers searches to produce results that profit its own secondary services, while limiting search access to competing services. In addition, the investigation concerns whether Google favors advertisements from its own services against competing services.

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Through globalization, outsourcing, and growing industry abroad international commerce has come to the forefront of business practices. Especially in the realm of electronic commerce, or e-commerce, where entire transactions take place online, international commerce is a major factor. Accordingly, legal considerations arise out of international business conduct, which includes questions of applicable law, jurisdictional concerns, and appropriate service of process in the case of a legal dispute.

One such applicable body of law is the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (“CISG”). The CISG was enacted in 1980 when international business and international e-commerce were a much less prominent mode of commerce. However, a growing international business community has placed the CISG in the forefront of fundamental business legislation in the international community. The CISG is intended to establish a “uniform and fair regime” for international contracts in order to provide for certainty in international commerce.

Additionally, the Hague Conference on Private International Law is an international organization that combines different legal traditions and practices to form a comprehensive legal framework to govern international legal transactions. The various Hague Conference Conventions have established frameworks for the practice of law across international borders. For example, the 1965 Hague Convention on Service Abroad has installed a system of service for legal documents that is not only more reliable, but certainly much more efficient and simple. The United States Department of State provides the applicable guidelines for various methods of service of legal documents abroad. By offering a more streamlined process, international legislation allows parties to conduct business more efficiently and regulates international legal disputes, which in turn minimizes costs and saves time for clients.

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