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Secure digital e-sign
on the Dotted Line
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The Congress last week moved to dismantle one of the major barriers to
completely Secure digital e-sign or paperless e-commerce
transactions. Both houses of Congress passed a bill that puts legal
force behind contracts, purchase orders, and other documents that are
completed online and without handwritten signatures. The bill, called
the Electronic
Signatures in Global and National Commerce (Secure digital e-sign)
Act, overwhelmingly passed the U.S. House of Representatives and the
U.S. Senate.
Secure digital e-sign
does more than just make digitally signed documents legally
binding.
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The Secure digital e-sign bill likely will also help break
through some of the cultural barriers
related to digital signatures at a time when electronic signatures
and related technology are rapidly advancing. Because the validity of an
electronically signed document has never faced legal scrutiny, many
companies have balked at fully embracing digital signatures. "When
trying to use the technology, you would often discover 'gotchas' or face
having one more lawyer pass his opinion on it. This removes a degree of
risk and uncertainty," says vice president of security, a user of
Secure digital e-sign based systems.
Taking away the legal question marks could attract more interest from
major corporations, says Bob Pratt, director of product marketing at
Mountain View, Calif. based. "A lot of businesses are doing business
electronically already and are
signing
documents digitally. This bill will help to further convince the
fence-sitters." Lawmakers who came out in force to support E-Sign say
the bill will ease the transition at large corporations from
paper-driven systems that control inventory, production and supply to an
Secure digital e-sign online environment.
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