For companies in and around the telecommunications field, the past few years have been a time of extraordinary change-technologically and legally. The enacting of the Telecommunications Act of 1996 and the development of international trade agreements have fundamentally changed the environment in which your business operates, creating risks, responsibilities, and opportunities that were not there before.

Until now, you'd have had a hard time finding a serious business book that offered any more than a cursory glance at this transformed world. But at last there's a resource you can depend on for in-depth analysis and sound advice. Written in easy-to-understand language, Telecommunications Law in the Internet Age systematically examines the complex interrelationships of new laws, new technologies, and new business practices, and equips you with the practical understanding you need to run your enterprise optimally within today's legal boundaries.

* Offers authoritative coverage from a lawyer and telecommunications authority who has been working in the field for over three decades.
* Examines telecommunications law in the U.S., at both the federal and state level.
* Presents an unparalleled source of information on international trade regulations and their effects on the industry.
* Covers the modern telecommunications issues with which most companies are grappling: wireless communication, e-commerce, satellite systems, privacy and encryption, Internet taxation, export controls, intellectual property, spamming, pornography, Internet telephony, extranets, and more.
* Provides guidelines for preventing inadvertent violations of telecommunications law.
* Offers guidance on fending off legal and illegal attacks by hackers, competitors, and foreign governments.
* Helps you do more than understand and obey the law: helps you thrive within it....

* register a domain name

* hire a designer and host

* create a privacy policy

* protect copyrights and trademarks

* license content for your site

* sell online legally

* accept credit cards

* deal with refunds

* and much more

How to Get Your Business on the Web provides the forms you need -- plus step-by-step instructions to fill them out -- on CD-ROM, including a Copyright Assignment, Nondisclosure Agreement and Linking Agreement....

The laws covering website and software development are complex and confusing, but if you don't untangle them, it could cost you thousands of dollars in attorneys' fees and lawsuits.

Fortunately, Web & Software Development decodes this complex area of the law, thoroughly and in reader-friendly English.The book also provides contracts, agreements and legal forms on CD-ROM, with step-by-step instructions for filling them out, so you can protect your software and website without paying a lawyer's ransom.

Use Web & Software Development to learn:

*what kind of legal protection you need
*the strengths and limitations of each type of protection
*how to avoid infringement
*which provisions you need when drafting an agreement
*how to obtain permission to use other people's materials

You'll find complete, step-by-step instructions to draft:

*employment agreements
*contractor and consultant agreements
*development agreements
*license agreements

The 4th edition offers a new section on one of the hottest topics in web and software development: open source, including licensing, liability for end users and the battle over Linux....

As we move into the twenty-first century the most important question for businesses everywhere is: What are we going to do about the Internet? The two most qualified people in the country to answer that question may be Al Ries and Laura Ries. Not only are they the authors of the BusinessWeek bestseller The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding, they are also consultants to dozens of Fortune 500 companies.

This book is the result of their hands-on work with both large and small companies as well as Internet start-ups and established Internet brands. Brash, bold, and mercifully succinct, The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding is the definitive text for businesses eager to jump on the Internet expressway.

In the book you'll learn why:The Internet can be a business or a medium for your brand, but not both.Interactivity is the single most important ingredient of any Internet site.The kiss of death for an Internet brand is a common name.Being second in a category is tantamount to being nowhere.You have to be fast. You have to be first. You have to be focused.Everyone is talking about convergence while just the opposite is happening.

The 11 Immutable Laws of Internet Branding will also give you tangible information on how to successfully build your company, product, service, or self into a hot and profitable brand on the Internet. Specifically you'll learn how to:Build a brand that will dominate a category over an extended period of time.Find a proper name (instead of a common one) for your Website.Take your brand into the global marketplace.Avoid the biggest mistake in Internet branding: the belief that you can do everything.Take advantage of the transformations that will occur in all aspects of life, thanks to the power of the Internet.

With characteristic counterculture observations and signature marketing savvy, Ries and Ries bring their expertise to branding on the Internet, the most challenging problem in the world of marketing today. No one who wants to turn a brand into a global phenomenon should ignore their sage advice....

    To most observers, the Internet is too new a medium to draw any firm conclusions about how to use it for business. But the Rieses have already come up with 11 "immutable" laws. Each is somewhat counterintuitive, and a couple are downright debatable. Start with No. 1: the Law of Either/Or. It states that a Web site can be a business or a medium for information, but not both. Therefore, companies have to choose which purpose they want to use the Internet for. Is it a medium, a way to get out the message about an existing "outernet" business? An example of this would be a magazine that puts up a Web site to allow readers to sample its content and then order a subscription. Or is it a business, trying to make money by selling a product or service? The Rieses argue that when a company decides to do business on the Web, it's better off starting a new brand rather than trying to extend its existing name. Another debate might erupt over No. 10: the Law of Divergence. Rather than the Internet becoming a medium that combines radio, TV, and telephone service, the Rieses say technology always goes in the opposite direction--it splinters. They use the analogy of the combination car and boat someone once invented: it drove like a boat and floated like a car. Thus, the Internet will separate into different types of services but will never converge with TV and radio.

Only history will tell us if these laws are truly immutable, but one thing is certain now: there's not a paragraph in this book that isn't provocative in some way. Businesspeople may not take all the counsel the Rieses offer, but they'd be nuts not to at least consider it. --Lou Schuler ...