Or maybe not. Whether Gettysburg or skirmish, the federal Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act, effective Oct., points up a host of legal and technical hurdles facing the devotees of e-commerce, especially the B2B flavor. One of the key provisions of the new legislation, often called E-Sign for short, is that electronic signatures hold the same weight as signatures on paper. All the same, many businesses are waiting for the first precedent-setting case to see which way the wind really blows. In addition, an electronic signature is valid under E-Sign only if the signatory intends to sign the contract.
Opinions vary as to the act s significance.
He sees E-sign primarily benefiting businesses in regulatory fields say, insurance, or commodities and securities with frequent dealings with the Feds. But on the pure commercial end, I m not sure there s much here, other than confusion. When you think about it, the federal government doesn t get involved in normal everyday contractual matters and now they have, he said. Now we ve got federal law and states laws, and we ve got to try to figure out how they mesh together. What E-Sign doesn t address, Ferber added, are the two big problems with online contracts message integrity and sender authenticity.