Business and Company Law MA506 Tutorial Five Unit Coordinator: Dr. Tushar Das Tutorial Questions Discussion Questions At what point in time is an electronic communication said to have been sent? In contract law, would a web display be considered to be an offer or an invitation to treat? Discuss. Does sending an email invoke the postal acceptance rule? Discuss some of the legal issues which would be relevant in an individual’s or company’s decision to register a particular domain name. Problem Questions Wayne is a university student studying information technology. As a hobby, he accesses supposedly secure websites and computer systems. On entering a site, he leaves a message to the systems administrator advising them that the system has security flaws but that no harm has been done. On one occasion, he accesses the system of a Commonwealth government department, which decides to take legal action to prevent further embarrassment arising from inadequate security.Advise Wayne. What if Wayne had also secretly been finding and recording credit card numbers from the computer systems he accesses? Wendy wants to help her fellow students save money on textbooks. While visiting her sister in the UK she spends a weekend scanning a whole textbook onto her sister’s computer. On her return to Australia, Wendy provides the link through her Facebook page but she does not keep any of the textbook on her own computer. Has Wendy infringed the copyright of the textbook author? Jennifer wants to attend a rock concert that is to be held at a country vineyard. She looks at the ticketing website and notices that before she can purchase tickets she needs to click on a box which indicates her acceptance of the venue’s terms and conditions. She clicks on this without bothering to read the terms and conditions as this would require her to leave the website she was on and go to another site. She did not want to miss out on the tickets as they are likely to sell out fast. When Jennifer arrived at the vineyard she was told that the concert had been cancelled because of bad weather and that no refunds were being given. This information had appeared on the terms and conditions website. Jennifer would not have purchased the tickets had she been aware that cancellation was possible. Advise Jennifer. A firm of real estate agents in Brisbane produce a newsletter each month which provides their view on the performance of the economy and suggests attractive areas for investment. It sends this list to all of its present and former clients as well as people whose names were on a list of subscribers to a business magazine. The newsletter contains a statement that the estate agents are able to assist individuals, companies and trustees with their property investment decisions. Have the estate agents breached any laws about the sending of unsolicited emails?
