With these technological advances, says LaVern Pritchard, an attorney with Clark Hill, PLC, in Minneapolis, "there are as many legal issues in the cyberspace world as in the real world."

...

Nonetheless, at the same time as borderless, law-lacking cyberspace creates new opportunities for criminals, it also suggests possibilities for business people. "Chaos creates all kinds of threats and also opportunities," Pritchard says. "This is just a wonderfully chaotic time in which a portion of the world is reinventing itself."

...

Web-site or home-page design also can lead to legal skirmishes. Before setting up a home page, Pritchard says, one should consider consulting with an Internet-savvy lawyer in order to spot and cope with potential problems before they arise. "That can be the best kind of money you spend on a lawyer, " Pritchard says.

...

For example, unless the issue is expressly dealt with in a contract, Pritchard says, the company for whom the Web site was built might own the content while the designer hired as an independent contractor might retain the rights to the "look and feel" of the site.

...

Another possible legal issue arises because of the mutable nature of the Internet. In order to attract repeat visitors to its home page, an enterprise changes the content frequently. But suppose a contract dispute were to arise and the enterprise only had the most current, revised page?

Pritchard suggests that, for use as possible evidence, businesses doing commerce on the Internet keep daily backup copies of home pages just as they keep paper records of many transactions. Thus, an enterprise could demonstrate that a visitor to its site on a certain date had to click on a specific limited license agreement in order to, say, gain access to software. It's simple, Pritchard says, but important protection for businesses.

...

Internet visionaries and inveterate risk-takers won't wait for that comfortable commercial cyberspace to be created, of course. Given the constantly evolving nature of the Internet, business people of all stripes should simply ensure they've taken proper precautions before leaping. Says Pritchard: "Legal advice and planning needs to be one component of business planning for the Internet."