Rhapsody Website: Legal, Ethical, and Regulatory Issues

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Please see response attached, which is also presented below. I hope this helps and take care.

RESPONSE:

1. What are the legal, ethical, and regulatory issues that Rhapsody deal with?

The same legal, ethical, and regulatory issues that all websites, especially the websites that sell items (see http://www.mightyrhapsody.com/index.php).

Specifically, Rhapsody is an e-Commerce site amongst other things (e.g. chat forums, etc.), so Rhapsody has a legal and ethical responsibility to provide safe and secure means of payment (e.g. SSL; encryption, etc.). There are also the commerce laws and regulations to consider; selling items across national and international borders is often murky, yet some regulations apply (see http://www.bakernet.com/ecommerce/intlegis-t.htm, which lists all e-Commerce laws by country) in regards to Commerce laws.

Even with the use of SSL, however, there are risks for the customer:

Risk of Fraud Much debate about the risk of fraud in electronic B2C takes place without any clear understanding about who bears the corresponding risk in conventional commercial transactions. See full paper (URL: http://www.fipr.org/WhoCarriesRiskOfFraud.htm), which examines risk in the banking transactions, which underpin much of commerce, whether electronic or conventional. The authors compare traditional transactions such as payments by cheque or credit card with the use of newer remote voice and data systems. They then analyze who bears the risk of fraud, and explore measures used or needed to reduce it. These authors argue that the approach taken by banks is unfair to their customers in some cases, fails to encourage the development of adequate security measures, and prevents the ...