Trademark lawyers are having a field day debating whether it is an infringement to mention Playboy in the hidden electronic text of a web page. It's a short step from there to a world in which the very act of navigating to a website will become the equivalent of doing a deal. We might even extend this automated-negotiation scenario to journalism. The most profound implication of electronic fine print may be that both vendor and user will be able to determine whether the other party is prepared to accept a particular source of law and choice of dispute resolution forum to resolve problems that may arise after the transaction. We need to build trust to build online commerce.
Online sites do that with branding.
Electronic fine print will let us brand the consumer, as well. And what a vendor cares most about, when evaluating an online prospect, is the willingness and ability to consummate the deal. No one reserving the right to wriggle out of a deal after the fact need apply. Vendors don't want to sell products to end users from a country that reserves the right to regulate the seller into the ground as soon as they can show that vendors shipped product, or even electrons, into their territory. Of course, consumers may lie about their whereabouts-or even about their willingness to pay when the bill arrives.