-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Any lawyers on this list may want to correct me, but as I understand it contract law is *extremely* flexible concerning what a "signature" is. It is perfectly legal to negotiate a contract via conventional, plaintext e-mail. If you wrote a contract for me to sign and I wrote back "I accept this contract" then legally a contract would exist. This is the same as if you phoned me, described a problem, and agreed to pay me to solve the problem. Legally a contract would exist (though it would be foolish not to put the contract in writing in most situations). The law is concerned more with the ritual of forming the contract (preferably by writing it on some medium that can be examined at a later date) followed by some sort of record that both parties agree on the contract they formed. In fact, businesses work like this all the time. The reason it works is that the best way to enforce a contract is to *trust* the person you're forming a contract with. Obviously, just negotiating a contract via e-mail is dangerous. All of us know there are ways to forge or repudiate parts or all of this transaction. A paper signature, just like a digital signature, is an excellent tool for non-repudiation (You say: I didn't sign that! Your opponent says: we know you signed this b/c this is your handwriting/public key/etc). Whether or not it seems to be a good idea from the viewpoint of computer science is irrelevant-- the law focuses on the *ritual,* not the specific form of the document. Note-- I'm deriving this statement from a study that I did on digital signatures in contract law that was part of my undergraduate thesis. I am not a legal expert. If I am totally off-base please explain to me where I am wrong so I may revise my notions concerning contract law. ...................................................................... . . .....John.D.Blair... mailto:jdblair@uab.edu phoneto:205.975.7123 . . http://frodo.tucc.uab.edu faxto:205.975.7129 . ..sys|net.admin.... . . the university computer center ..... ..... g.e.e.k.n.i.k...the.university.of.alabama.at.birmingham.... -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3a Charset: noconv iQCVAwUBNL/2AQJjTpK3AXhBAQHJMgQAoPZfME2lyEm29ipy8CMGmt32RXhERF0D 1WyEMP+dxkcDb8LkgYwPYZZp8pAEac2Qd8puET3S6tJajj452TEPelfyKeKfMFva yFyWowFBON+R2AJT1HMXL2ArevRqTpbKD3mdjZ/qtWBbEf8Dh+gNoU0E+CoTbiEq 0lgp0nIrW9o= =I5Jy -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----