a quick word to the cpunks with legal interests. a great new book called "Online Law: the SPA's Legal Guide to Doing Business on the Internet" seems to me to be a superlative compilation. edited by Thomas J Smedinghoff. Addison-Wesley, 1996. extremely up-to-date-- in one section cites various court decisions from 1995 on the scientologists vs. netcom etc. heavy on the citations/footnotes of existing law. has very good coverage of encryption and digital signatures etc. and talks about their legal status. also, good info on copyrights, defamation, patents, online transactions, trade secrets, privacy, licensing 1st amendment, sexually explicit materials, email in the workplace, export control, trade practices, contracts, etc. I expect this volume is going to be widely praised and become a very definitive guide. it seems to me a quick look in this book would go about 95% toward resolving immediately a lot of the online debates I've read here and elsewhere about "what the law says". the price is also very good for something of this type, typically the law-related material is really expensive. ordering: (800) 238 9682 see http://www.aw.com/devpress ISBN 0-201-48980-5 $34.95 544 pages paperback