Frequently Asked Questions

The Cyber law regulates the behaviour of user who is using computers/ systems and the internet for any business or personal transactions. Some of major areas of its applicability :-
Copyright: It protects the rights of companies and individuals to get profit from their creative work.
Fraud: The one of the objective of cyber law is to protect people from online fraud. Consumers these days depend on technology for their e-commerce needs where cyber law help to prevent the online fraud. It regulates and help prevent credit card theft, identity theft, and other money-related crimes that are bound to happen online.
Harassment and Stalking: Some statements made by people can violate criminal law that refuses stalking and harassment online. When somebody posts threatening statements repeatedly about somebody else, this violates both criminal and civil laws. Cyber lawyers fight and defend people when online stalking occurs.
Trade Secrets: Businesses depend on Cyber laws to preserve their trade secrets. For example, some organizations might steal online algorithms or features designed by another firm. In this case, Cyber laws empower the victim organisation to take legal action to protect its secrets.
Contracts and Employment Laws: We might have agreed upon many terms and conditions while opening a website or downloading some software. This is where the Cyber law is used. These Terms & Conditions are designed for online privacy concerns.

IT ACT 2000, provides a legal framework for electronic governance, recognition to electronic records and digital signatures. It defines various cyber crimes and prescribes penalties for them and provide the appropriate mean to seek the remedies. Companies Rules 2014 under the Companies Act 2013, makes it mandatory for all companies to ensure that all digital records and security systems are tight and sealed to avoid tampering and illegal access The Indian Penal Code Act 1860 punishes any crime committed in cyberspace (such as cheating, harassment, hacking, breach of privacy, etc) Sector-specific regulations are also established in The department of telecommunication, The Reserve Bank of India, and the Insurance Regulatory. Strict cybersecurity rules have been followed for most of the regulated sectors.

Written agreements are crucial to the business success, as they provide a clear framework to help manage commercial transactions and relationships with consumers, suppliers, partners and shareholders. Business contracts can also be used to mitigate risks and assign liability to particular aspects of a deal; however, they must be fair to both parties and legally binding.

It is important that commercial contracts are very clear and precise, as any vagueness or uncertainty may raise disputes that can result in potentially costly litigation. A well-drafted contract will seek to avoid any uncertainty by including provisions that give precise instructions by creating required rights and obligations.   

A contract is a legally enforceable agreement which gives certain rights and responsibilities to those that agree to their terms. Contract formation is a practical question and is often determined by analysing the prior negotiations (such as email chains) between the parties

The essential elements of contract formation also apply to terms of business displayed on your website or app. Importantly your customers must be given the opportunity to accept or decline the terms, for example, by completing a tick box and clicking a button. Additional requirements as to the type and amount of information to be included in the terms of business will vary depending on whether you are engaging consumers or businesses.

A breach of contract occurs when a party fails to carry out some or all of its obligations in the contract. It entitles other parties to claim damages for any losses that are suffered as a result. 

There are a number of potential remedies for a contract dispute. These are:
1) Damages  An award of damages is a basic resolution offered for a breach of contract. Damages awarded are intended to put any affected parties into the same financial position they would have been in had the contract obligations been properly carried out. Not all damages are recoverable, particularly in cases where they are considered too remote to have been foreseeable. When a breach of contract is considered serious, the affected party is discharged from further obligations under the contract, either instead of or as well as, claiming damages.
2) Injunction  It is possible to obtain an injunction relating to a breach of contract. In such cases, a court will order a party to perform a negative obligation. Injunctions fall into two main categories: Prohibitory injunction: An order that something must not be done Mandatory injunction: An order that something must be done
3) Specific performance  An order for specific performance requires a party to perform a positive contract obligation, which will usually include them doing something they should have done as part of the contract. The court will usually only grant specific performance when it would be just to do so.
4) Recission  Recission is the process of setting aside a contract by which each party is put back into a position similar to that they were in before the contract was made. This option may be available in cases where a contract has been concluded as a result of: Misrepresentation Duress Mistake Undue influence
5) Rectification  This option only applies in cases involving written contracts, with the purpose of correcting mistakes made in recording agreements. The courts can rectify a written agreement that does not reflect the true deal between the parties.

Non Disclosure Agreement represents a legally binding document which determines the circulation of any information within the parties including the intellectual property and any other business information which is deemed as confidential, and also limits the disclosure of such information to any third parties.
Key Objective of NDA :
1- Protecting the essential Business information that is defined as “confidential” under the agreement to unauthorised parties.
2- Protecting the Intellectual Rights by serving the best interests of innovators of new products and intellectual property.
3- Classification of confidential and non-confidential information in writing to avoid any claim of ignorance, or the absence of knowledge regarding the “confidential” information.
NDA needs to meet all elements of the validity of a contract, whereas key elements of NDA are as follow:
1- Clearly defined Identities of all the Contracting Parties ( “disclosing party” and “receiving party”).
2- Duration must be defined.
3- Purpose must be clearly stated.
4- Definition of Confidential Information based on its classification must be clearly defined.
5- Rights & Obligation related to Confidential information must be clearly stated.
6- Reasonable Exclusion must be stated. Appropriate Jurisdiction to be included based on all the known variables such as Industry, cross-border implications etc.

Terms of website use are required to set out the basis upon which a visitor to the site may access and use it. These terms should be used to comply with the website owner’s legislative information requirements by making it clear who operates the site and how to contact them. The terms are also an opportunity for a website owner to limit its liability relating to content on the site via the inclusion of disclaimers relating to reliance on that content.
A privacy notice is required on a website to notify visitors about how their personal data is collected, used, shared, stored, retained and secured by the website operator. Every website that uses cookies must provide visitors with details of such cookies and the purposes for which they are used in a cookies policy. Website owners should ensure that links to cookies policies are prominent and banner notices which appear when a user lands on a site are commonly used to ensure compliance.
An acceptable use policy (AUP) will be required if your website contains functionality which allows visitors to upload comments and/or other materials to the site. The AUP should set out the rules and standards governing those uploads and, if drafted carefully, should assist in excluding the website operator’s liability in the event that those uploads are defamatory or breach a third party’s intellectual property rights.
E-commerce websites should contain terms and conditions of sale  terms on which goods and/or services are sold via the website.

Access to source code is essential to allow a party to modify and support the software program to which the source code relates. Software suppliers understandably want to ensure that they keep hold of the source code relating to the software they license to their customers and therefore software is licensed in machine readable object code form. As such, the customer is dependent on the software supplier for modifications, maintenance and error correction of the software on an ongoing basis. If business critical software is being licensed, a savvy customer may require a mechanism that allows them (or a third party appointed by them) to take over these software support functions if the supplier fails to provide them.

Laws governing the Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, refers to the Internet based industry of buying and selling products or services via electronic means. E-Commerce uses a combination of Internet technology, mobile commerce, electronic funds transfers, escrowing services, electronic data interchange, supply chain management, inventory management systems, Internet marketing, data collection systems, and many other technologies and innovative business systems. Most, if not all, e-commerce transactions use the Internet for at least one point of the transaction. Other Forms of E-Commerce Other examples of e-commerce include subscription sites, mobile application sales, electronic book purchases, online auctions, and the procurement of various services via the web.