of innovation has occurred so rapidly that few entrepreneurs have stopped to consider who owns the patent on a business technique or method that they are using on
their site. The spirit of the Web has been so free-wheeling that many entrepreneurs
ignored trademark law and registered domain names that could easily be confused
with another company’s registered trademarks. In short, the Internet has demonstrated the potential to destroy traditional conceptions and implementations of intellectual property law developed over the last two centuries.
The major ethical issue related to e-commerce and intellectual property concerns
how we (both as individuals and as business professionals) should treat property that
belongs to others. From a social point of view, the main questions are: Is there continued value in protecting intellectual property in the Internet age? In what ways is
society better off, or worse off, for having the concept of property apply to intangible
ideas? Should society make certain technology illegal just because it has an adverse
impact on some intellectual property owners? From a political perspective, we need
to ask how the Internet and e-commerce can be regulated or governed to protect the
institution of intellectual property while at the same time encouraging the growth of
e-commerce and the Internet.